Importance of Evaluating Development Policies

BY JACK ASSA

One of the biggest problems found in Papua New Guinea’s public institutions today is not about policy implementation skills but failure to evaluate developmental policies that have been already implemented. The overlooking of evaluation leads to bureaucrats repeating the same old mistakes encountered in a previous program or project. This year, 2013 has been declared the “Year of Implementation” by the O’Neil-Dion Government. My biggest fear is that many policies will go unevaluated. I see the ignorance of evaluation as a “professional negligence” by bureaucrats. The negligence of the evaluation by the bureaucrats does not only affect government decisions but cost millions of government funding. As far as the past is concerned, successive governments and executing agencies have failed to consider the importance of evaluating policies or program delivered in this country. 

Last week, the National Government through the Finance and Education Minister Hon. James Marape in his report to the Parliament said that the O’Neil-Dion Government has already released over K8 billion to fund the Government’s priority programs in keeping with 2013 as the “Year of Implementation”. Minister Marape said that the government kick-started implementing the development policies with commitments to investments in free education, free health, improved transport infrastructure, support to agriculture to grow the economy, and law and order programs.

Minister Marape said that all total government recurrent and development expenditures were frontloaded in as far as warrants were concerned to executing agencies and departments.

The government has made available the funds needed to achieve the stated development policies. Their main interest is to see the policies implemented and impact realized. It is the executing agency’s responsibility to complete the policy cycle in order to achieve the policy targets. It is not the government’s responsibility to inform the executing agency, as they are interested in the outcome of their development policy. Traditionally, the task lies with the bureaucrats or the executing agency. However, many developmental policies implemented are not evaluated in the public sector today. The question is how do they know that the program implemented achieved its intended targets or goals? What about the short term and long term impact? Why it failed or succeeded in achieving its targets? Do they have divisions that cater for evaluation? Are the advice given to the National Government reliable and valid? Can the government base their decisions on this advice? 

The fact in many departments is that they are ill informed of the success or failure of a policy even if the policy is implemented and housed by them because they fail to evaluate the policy. The advice given to the government, for example Ministers, do not have bases. They do not have the records of what went wrong and what went right. A bureaucrat is well informed and prepared to avoid and overcome the problems faced in the previous project, only when the previous project is evaluated. Year in year out, many development policies have completely failed because executing agencies are lazy and neglect evaluation part. Once a policy fails or performs poorly in its outcome, the blame is always on the government, rather than the implementing agency. 

Bureaucrats need to see the essence of evaluation.  Many will agree that lot of government decisions today are made based on “guess fire” and baseless advice from bureaucrats. Programs are blindly implemented with pressure and emotion resulting in failure in realizing the effect and impact of the particular program. The same old mistakes are made over and over again. Given the enormous pressure from the government to live up to their pledge, it is likely that many development policies will go unevaluated this year. As a result, in the 2014 financial year, another 8 billion Kina will be spent blindly, without realizing the impacts of the previous development policies implemented, because they have no substantial data providing the status of the policy. The poor minister will only believe at the scrap advice given to him or her by the executing agency.   

Why should one concerned about evaluating policies?  Firstly, evaluation helps Improve program design and implementation. It is important to periodically assess and adapt government activities to ensure they are as effective as they can be. Evaluation can help the policy implementer identify areas for improvement and ultimately help them realize their goals more efficiently. Additionally, when bureaucrats share their results about what was more and less effective, they help advance environmental education.

Secondly, evaluation demonstrates program impact. Evaluation enables the implementers to demonstrate their program’s success or progress. The information they collect allows them to better communicate their program's impact to others, which is critical for government interventions and decisions, public relations, staff morale, and attracting and retaining support from current and potential funders. 

Thirdly, evaluation enables the government to make well informed decisions. Government and the department concern will be in a better position to make decisions using the current policy evaluation. It also provides a more robust basis for raising funds and influencing policy.

The type of the evaluation that should be conducted can be decided by the department concerned or policy implementers. Generally, evaluations fall into one of two broad categories: formative and summative. Formative evaluations are conducted during program development and implementation and are useful if they want direction on how to best achieve their goals or improve their program. Summative evaluations should be completed once their programs are well established and will tell them to what extent the program is achieving its goals.

It is recommended that the executing agency make evaluation part of their program, rather than taking it at the end. The evaluation experience is likely to be more positive and its results are likely to be more useful if they build evaluation in from the start and make it an on-going activity. 

Many public institutions have separate divisions for Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). Many of these divisions seem to be domain or underfunded. The question is whether these departments evaluate the programs implemented by their department? And do implementers act on the recommendations?  One policy that continues to fall into this category is the Free Education Policy. Successive governments have pumped in millions of Kina into the education sector for free education, yet it has not been evaluated. Obviously, something needs to be done. Having the evaluation report for the past year(s) means finding the best strategy and direction to effectively and efficiently deliver the program and reaching the objectives. 

Let me conclude by saying that evaluation is part and parcel of the project in a policy cycle. Evaluation is equally important to implementation, and no department should take it lightly.  A policy that has been evaluated has higher chances of reaching target on a same or similar project in the future. This does not only save cost but helps the government and the agency to make informed decisions. Government Ministers, MPs, department heads, provincial and district administrators must emphasis the importance of evaluation equally to implementation of development policies. 

For next week’s issue, the writer will look at the importance of auditing public service to find balance, since millions of Kina has been given to the district level without building the capacity. Wish you God’s blessings for now. 

The writer is undertaking post graduate studies and living in Indonesia. For comments and feedbacks, he can be contacted on jackassa945@gmail.com (email) / +081273238217 (Mobile Phone).

Source: Sunday Chronicle, 10th June 2013