Evalsed is an online resource providing guidance on the evaluation of socio-economic development. It promotes exchange of experience and good practice as well as increasing the relevance of evaluation in decision-making. Whilst the resource has a specific focus on evaluation in EU cohesion policy, it is also relevant to the evaluation of other socio-economic development tools.
Evalsed is currently under development. In the policy debate, there is an ever increasing focus on the need for evidence on the performance of cohesion policy. Policy makers need to know "what works?" and "why?". The experiences of ongoing evaluation for 2007-2013 and the thematic ex post evaluation of the 2000-2006 period also demonstrate the greater potential for evaluations of themes or interventions to deliver credible results. Evalsed has traditionally focused on programme evaluations. Following these recent evaluation experiences and discussions at the Warsaw conference on evaluation methods [http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/conferences/evaluation2009/index_en.htm], Evalsed will be redeveloped.
Evalsed consists of two parts: THE GUIDE and three SOURCEBOOKS.
The GUIDE is designed primarily for decision-makers - specifically those who design and manage evaluations in order to enhance decision making on socio-economic development policies. It defines the role of evaluation in socio-economic development, discusses various ways to develop evaluation capacity, elaborates on evaluation methods as well as providing guidance on how to design and implement evaluations and how to ensure their quality.
The SOURCEBOOKS are of particular interest to practitioners and those wishing to impart or acquire evaluation skills. The three SOURCEBOOKS cover the following issues: evaluation approaches for particular themes and policy areas, evaluation methods and techniques and evaluation capacity building.The first SOURCEBOOK on themes and policy areas is under reconstruction. Material in the second SOURCEBOOK on methods and techniques has been updated, although further updates are foreseen in 2010.
The History of Evalsed
Evalsed had its origins in the MEANS programme (Means for Evaluating Actions of a Structural Nature) which started in 1995 and culminated in a 6 volume survey of evaluation in 1999 (no longer in print). In 2004, MEANS was transformed and developed into a website – Evalsed (Evaluation of Socio-Economic Development). Evalsed was further developed in 2007, 2008 and, most recently, in 2009.
While it would be impossible to mention everyone, DG for Regional Policy would like to acknowledge and thank the following for their contributions over the years:
MEANS: Eric Monnier and Jacques Toulemonde at the Centre for European Evaluation Expertise (C3E)
EVALSED website development (2004): Nick Bozeat of GHK, Elliot Stern, formerly of the Tavistock Institute
EVALSED developments (2009): Alberto Martini, Director of Progetto Valutazione
DG for Regional Policy: Anastassios Bougas, Andrea Mairate, Veronica Gaffey, Anna Burylo, Patty Simou, Daniel Mouqué, Kai Stryczynski, Alain Vander Velde