Resumen de Evaluation for public expenditure management in crisis: International experiences
Evaluation is becoming one of the elements most appreciated and recognized in many governments for public expenditure management. In times of fiscal crisis and quick socio-economic transformations, few public initiatives avoid the questioning and debate on their value and opportunity. Although the need for producing evaluative knowledge seems obvious from a theoretical perspective, it is not clear its practical use for decision making and particularly for resource allocation and management. After many years of serious and continuous efforts in this regard, the OECD countries have progressed by incorporating non-financial information in the budget document, monitoring and reporting on results, but important challenges remain; e.g. integrating this information with the financial one and taking into account both together for allocating resources. This study examines the potential of evaluation both as a means of maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness in Government and also as a factor of strategic spending and innovation. Special attention is paid to the need for adapting decision making and evaluation models in coherence with the current context of crisis. Although the scope is wide, the objective is modest. The aim of this report is to identify and analyse practical experiences and initiatives in a number of selected OECD countries that might be useful for other countries to initiate or advance in this domain.
