On 23 May 2019, the international investment evaluation conference “Evaluation Post 2020: Evolution or Revolution?“ organised by the Ministry of Finance took place in Vilnius. The event was attended by over 120 participants from 19 countries. The experts shared their experience and discussed more effective ways for the evaluation to contribute to evidence-based management.
In 2004, after the approval of the first programme funded by the European Union Structural Funds, investment evaluation processes where started in Lithuania to ensure higher quality results of the programmes. The evaluation system counts 15 years of its existence this year.
“The evaluation system serves as a tool to ensure that knowledge is used as the main criterion in strategic decision-making and when improving the implementation of public policy. Investment evaluation covers systemic collection of data and facts as well as their analysis. Focusing on facts allows us to draw a line between evaluation and subjective opinions and interpretations,” ‒ Miglė Tuskienė said.
One of the experts, Dr. Wolfgang Meyer, Deputy Director of the Centre for Evaluation (CEVAL) at Saarland University (Germany), stated that during the last three decades evaluation has established itself as an important tool for evidence-based policy making all over Europe. “However, evaluation results are not so widely used as the results of public surveys, while the civic society gets involved only when they see the actual benefit; therefore there is still a lot to be achieved together in this area,” ‒ Dr. Meyer said at the conference.
The conference aims at enhancing evaluation capacities and increasing awareness about evaluation results, also at creating an international platform for sharing best practice and ideas which should encourage networking and reciprocal learning. Speakers from the European Commission, the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as well as recognised Lithuanian and foreign evaluators delivered their presentations at the conference.
The next funding period 2021-2027 and new challenges and opportunities for the evaluation system were in the centre of attention of the speakers.
More information about the conference is available here:
Presentations:
UNDERSTANDING POLICY IMPACT: IN-DEPTH EVALUATION OF OECD COMMITTEES
EVALUATION OF ESF FUNDED TRAININGS: HOW SUCCESSFUL HAVE THE NEW STRATEGIES OF DATA COLLECTION BEEN?
MONITORING AND EVALUATING COMPLEX INTERVENTIONS - USING INSIGHTS FROM SYSTEMS THINKING
BUILDING CAPACITY FOR EFFECTIVE USE OF POLICY EVALUATION: LESSONS FROM THE OECD EXPERIENCE
GYVENIMO KOKYBĖS MATAVIMAI IR JŲ NAUDA Į REZULTATUS ORIENTUOTAM VALDYMUI
THE FUTURE OF EVALUATION: 10 PREDICTIONS
PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS TO CREATE PUBLIC OUTCOME. HOW CAN EVALUATION HELP US?
IMPACT, CAUSALITY THEORY, AND BIG DATA
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF EVALUATIONS? IMPLEMENATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS: CONTENT VS FORM
INSTITUTIONALISATION OF EVALUATION IN EUROPE: THE CURRENT STATE AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES