Evaluating administrative and institutional capacity building

1. Evaluating administrative and institutional capacity building International Evaluation & Methodology Conference 6-7 May 2010Budapest Anna Galazka European Commission,DG Employment, Social Affairs & Equal Opportunities,Evaluation and Impact Assessment Unit

2. Outline • Rationale for the evaluation • Purpose and evaluation questions • Analytical framework and methodology

3. What is administrative capacity? • “the process through which individuals, organizations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time” UNDP • “the capacity to manage the complex processes and interactions that constitute a working political and economic system” World Bank

4. Rationale for the Evaluation

5. General aspects • Importance of administrative capacity for the economy and for the people; • Administrative and institutional reforms in the last 20 years; • Role of the EU in the administrative capacity building.

6. ESF Regulation – the legal basis • Strengthening institutional capacity and the efficiency of: • public administrations and public services at national, regional and local level; • and, where relevant, of the social partners and non-governmental organisations, • with a view to reforms, better regulation and good governance especially in the economic, employment, education, social, environmental and judicial fields.

7. Purpose of the Evaluation & Evaluation Questions

8. Purpose of the evaluation • To assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the ESF 2007-13 interventions in the administrative and institutional capacity building; • To provide recommendations on the priority for 2014-2020 programming period, particularly the role of the Commission.

9. Evaluation questions • What was the context in which administrative and institutional capacity building interventions have taken place? • What is the perceived impact of the EU pre-accession and ESF support to administrative and institutional capacity building in the Member States? • How could a future ESF priority on administrative and institutional capacity building look like? - What could be the role of the Commission?

10. Analytical framework and methodology

11. Methodology step by step • Scoping analysis – identifying issues and interventions relevant for administrative capacity building – literature review • Context analysis - inventory of administrative capacity building interventions in 10 MS - national reports • Mapping of the relevant ESF interventions

12. Scoping – dimensions of administrative capacity building • Policy – organisational development • legislation; • management; • cooperation. • Human Resources – individual capacity development • people; • competences/skills; • operating budget. • Systems and tools - development of instruments, methods, guidelines, manuals, procedures, forms

14. Context analysis – problem factors in MS administrations • an inherited political culture • weak structures and cooperation • skills and competence gaps amongst civil servants

15. Mapping of ESF Administrative Capacity Building Activities

16. Example: Challenges to Human Resource Development Strategies in National Administrations Can not be addressed by ESF interventions as presented in the OPs: • Outdated strategy (RO); • Lack of responsibility (RO); • Lack of awareness on importance HR (RO). Can be addressed by ESF interventions as presented in the OPs: • Lack of sound analysis for HRD development (BG); • Lack of trained staff in HR departments (BG); • Lack of integrated strategy (HU/SL/BG).

17. Difficulties for the evaluation • Lack of proper indicators • Most of the capacity-building projects have just started • Limited transparency, dependency from political decisions

18. Next steps • Case studies - selected projects • Validation of findings through national focus groups • Interviews with key experts from international organisations • Developing recommendations • Central workshop on the future role of ESF • Final report planned for September 2010