RECENT INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE EVALUATION FRAMEWORK REGARDING ITS INTENDED USES. THE CASE OF EU COHESION POLICY APPROACH TOWARDS THE EVALUATION OF PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS
RECENT INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE EVALUATION FRAMEWORK REGARDING ITS INTENDED USES. THE CASE OF EU COHESION POLICY APPROACH TOWARDS THE EVALUATION OF PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS

Summary/Abstract: The article starts from a comparative view of the evaluation strategies used among relevant global organizations, that streamline the general approach towards the evaluation practice. The analysis is focused on the way in which the current provisions emphasize different ways of evaluation utilization. Then, the analysis zooms in on to the developments of the EU Cohesion Policy evaluation framework in the period 2007 – 2027 towards a more effective process. The article is developed based on the following two key concepts: evidence-based policy and evaluation use. Both concepts emerged from the research efforts that have been developed since the second half of the nineteenth century. Looking at the subject from this perspective, the evaluation of public programmes and policies becomes an instrument for evidence-based policy. Together with the expansion in using evidence-based policy approach from the last two decades, the evaluation practice should have gained more importance in the policy-making cycle. Nevertheless, most of the available data shows that the results of the evaluation process are used in general to a small extent compared with its potential of generating change at the level of policy, programme, project or in terms of organizational culture. In this respect, the aim of the analysis is to answer two key questions: Is the utilization phase sufficiently explicit within the evaluation frameworks developed by international organizations? and Are there other implicit factors that have to be activated/mobilized in the evaluation process so as to increase the role of the evaluation in the policy cycle? The core rationale of putting the focus of the article on this subject is given by the fact that this practice involves engaging considerable financial, human and time resources and when an evaluation does not produce the expected effects it becomes a waste of resources.

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