viernes, 24 de enero de 2014

Evidence-based public policies: the experience of the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion

                                                                                                                                                                       
      By Anibal Velásquez, Fabiola Cáceres, Úrsula Martinez
   
  1.     Introduction

The creation of the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion -MIDIS on October 2011 marked a milestone in the institutionalization of social inclusion as a state priority for the Peruvian government and consolidated the beginning of a reform towards an evidence based development and social inclusion policy focused on focalization, inter-agency and intergovernmental coordination and rigorous evaluation of the results.

In that context, MIDIS created the General Direction of Monitoring and Evaluation- DGSE as the unit in charge of monitoring and evaluating policies, programs and projects related to development and social inclusion in all levels of the Peruvian government. The mission of the Direction is to improve the impact, efficiency, quality, equity and transparency of development and social inclusion policies and programs and, therefore, provides to both citizens and policymakers, the results of evaluations and evidences generated by the Monitoring and Evaluation System.

Nevertheless, aware of the fact that the use of evidence in social policy is not an automatic event but a process conducted in a political and institutional context influenced by various visions, actors and interests, the Monitoring and Evaluation System designed by MIDIS has emphasized in developing instruments to ensure that the evidence generated not only fulfills the highest quality standards but is translated in a learning source and the continuous improvement of the developments and social inclusion public interventions.

2.     The experience of MIDIS in use of evidence

Traditionally, monitoring and evaluation systems throughout the world have been focused in the production of high quality and independent information and evidence on a timely manner. Those efforts have resulted in great improvements on the professionalism and academic rigor of the scientific evidence generated about the efficiency and efficacy of public interventions on social issues.

However, internationally, it is increasingly common to identify a crisis in the use of evidence in public policy decisions. This situation suggests that even though the generation of evidence is a necessary piece of the puzzle, it is not enough to ensure informed public policies capable of improving the quality of social expenditure since the use of evidence depends on multiple factors that can increase or decrease the probability of influencing public policy.

According to Weiss (1999), there are four factors that influence the use of the results of evaluations: interests, ideologies, institutional culture and information sources. As stated by the author, if the evidence generated conflicts with any of those four factors, the probability of being used in public policy decisions decreases considerably.

From a different perspective, Innvaer (2012) argues that the “two community thesis” explains the limited use of evidence in public policy decisions. According to the author, there is a collision between science and politics that obstacles the use of evidence in the decision making process. Innvaer argues that scientists see themselves as rational, objective and innovative and perceive politicians as interest-driven actors immune to innovation and scientific evidence. On the other hand, politicians and policymakers see themselves as responsible, action oriented and pragmatic leaders and perceive scientists as naïve and commonly disconnected with the actual reality.

In that sense, in order to promote the use of evidence in public policy decisions, Innvaer considers that it is mandatory to create conditions that increase the probability of use, fostering, for example, spaces of dialogue and interaction between science and politics. However, in opinion of the author, the responsibility of promoting further dialogue between both fields cannot be placed on any of both sides and a third actor is necessary to intermediate and facilitate.

In that context, in the design of the Monitoring and Evaluation System, MIDIS has considered DGSE both as a unit that generates high quality evidence and as a mediator between evaluators and policymakers in order to promote the use of evidence in social policy. In that sense, through the dual role of DGSE, MIDIS intends to close the gap between the scientific world of the academia and the policymaker´s reality, translating evidence into clear, timely and viable recommendations that can be understood and mostly, used by policymakers.  

Therefore, unlike the traditional systems of monitoring and evaluation, the DGSE concept constitutes and innovation since the final goal that justifies the existence of the unit goes beyond the production of information and aims to improve the impact, efficiency, efficacy, quality, equity and transparency of social and development interventions through the use of evidence.

As shown in the logic framework developed by DGSE (Figure 1), the unit has conceptualized several products and services to produce systematic information and evidence regarding opportunities for improvement in social interventions. Those results will allow DGSE to contribute to the development of Performance Improvement Plans and to inform about the effectivity of social policies and programs with the objective of increasing the impact, efficiency, quality, equity and transparency of governmental interventions in development and social inclusion matters. The design of the DGSE model was validated and supported by all MIDIS´s internal stakeholders who made several contributions to “MIDIS´s Guidelines for Monitoring, Evaluation and Use of Evidence”.

In order to ensure the independence of the evaluations, impact evaluations on MIDIS´s social programs and policies are funded directly by the Ministry of Finance or multilateral agencies. However, DGSE participates actively on the evaluations and works closely with the Ministry of Finance providing technical assistance to ensure the quality of the evidence generated.

 

Figure 1: DGSE Logical framework



 

In particular, it is important to note that the most innovative element of DGSE regarding traditional evaluations units relies in the evidence and recommendations management component since this specific line of action is the one that influences Performance Improvement Plans and the use of evidence, and therefore, allows to translate evidence into greater impact, efficiency, quality, equity and transparency of public interventions on social and development. 

Therefore, DGSE has evolved from the production of information to the use of evidence and has learned that what justifies the existence of monitoring and evaluation systems is the final goal: improving the quality, efficiency, efficacy and equity of policies, programs and services through evidence and results based management.

In this context, DGSE is determined to be a part of the decision making process of policies and programs, providing reliable evidence and information on a timely manner in order to feed into planning, design and operational decisions.

As shown in Figure 2, DGSE´s model is not only centered in the evaluation cycle but considers as well the cycle of policy and programs in addition to the public administrative system cycle and the political context. Therefore, DGSE provides evidence and information to programs and organic units according to the phase of the cycle they are going through. For instance, in the case of programs in a design or redesign phase, DGSE provides evidence to identify and implement adjustments if necessary, while in the case of programs focused on the operation, DGSE provides products designed to identify and solve specific problems affecting the efficiency and efficacy of the intervention.

Figure 2: DGSE in the cycle of policy and programs


In terms of the products and services designed around the evaluation cycle, DGSE has developed a Performance Improvement Strategy shown in Figure 3. As it can be observed, the cycle begins by identifying potential areas of improvement in policies and social programs. That process can be started by programs themselves or by DGSE. However, in the second phase of the cycle DGSE and the programs decide together on the best instruments to produce the expected evidence in a timely manner.

Once the evidence production phase concludes, DGSE has conceived an intermediate step between the production and use of evidence where the Recommendations Technical Reports are prepared and presented. This management reports have been designed with the aim of providing policymakers in charge of the design and/or operation of public interventions on development and social inclusion clear and timely recommendations that consider both the political and economic viability of implementation.

In that sense, through this innovative design, MIDIS expects to connect scientific evidence with the reality of the operation of social interventions with the goal of increasing the use of evidence in the decision making process.

 
Figure 3: DGSE´s Performance Improvement Cycle



Other innovation element in the Peruvian Monitoring and Evaluation design relies in the development of the Performance Improvement Plans that demand close coordination and negotiation between DGSE and the programs or units in charge of the operation of the evaluated interventions. The Performance Improvement Plans have been designed as a management tool that based on the opportunities for improvement identified in the Recommendations Technical Reports, consolidates the commitments assumed by the operators of the interventions evaluated as well as the mechanisms for monitoring progress on the implementation of the reforms.

 

The following phase in the cycle is related to the implementation of the commitments assumed in the Performance Improvement Plans and, even though the implementing actions depend mostly on the operation of the evaluated programs and interventions, DGSE is intended to provide technical assistance during the process to ensure the correct and timely implementation.

 

Finally, the DGSE model considers a final stage where the effect of the evidence based improvements implemented in accordance to the Performance Improvement Plans are measured and evaluated on the impact, efficiency, quality, equity and transparency of the development and social inclusion interventions. This final step is intended as well as a mean to evaluate the success of DGSE as an evaluation unit.

 

This last component constitutes an innovation as well since in the traditional evaluation unit model success is commonly measured in terms of the number of evaluations performed or the scientific rigor and quality of the evaluations, forgetting that the real success goes beyond the ability of the unit to generate high quality evidence on a timely manner and needs to be measured in terms of its contribution towards greater impact, efficiency, quality, equity and transparency of the policies and programs evaluated.

 

Even though MIDIS´s relatively short existence, the DGSE model design has already shown encouraging results. In the context of the redesign process of social programs, in 2012 DGSE developed 16 evaluations that resulted in seven Technical Reports developed by DGSE containing evidence based recommendations for social programs.

 

As it can be observed in Table 1, 65% of the recommendations made by DGSE have been implemented or are in process of implementation, while 15% require further studies or coordination with other sector to be implemented.

 

Table 1: Use of DGSE´s recommendations -2012



 
One example worth to be noted is the use of DGSE evidences in the decision of closing a food assistance program formerly named PRONAA. In 2012 DGSE commissioned 7 evaluations regarding PRONAA which showed that the program was poorly targeted and was not available for a significant part of the population that required the most nutritional support. Additionally, the evaluations pointed out that PRONAA delivered a service with very low standards while had scarce transparency mechanisms that resulted in corruption. The results and lessons learned from the evaluations conducted by DGSE over PRONAA were summarized on a Recommendations Technical Report and socialized with the relevant decision makers. PRONAA was eliminated on May 2012 and operated until December 31, 2012.

 

Other clear examples on how the DGSE model focused on the use of evidence can actually have an impact on policy are the evidence based improvements introduced to Cuna Mas in 2013 and the introduction of evidence provided by DGSE on the Policy Guidelines against Child Chronic Malnutrition developed by MIDIS in 2012. In the first case, the evidence based recommendations made by DGSE regarding the evaluations conducted on 2012 over the previous Wawa Wasi program were used as an input to introduce several improvements to the quality of the daycare service provided.  In the second case, the national and international evidence provided by DGSE served as a base to identify effective interventions against child malnutrition and develop a Policy Tool to guide national and subnational government agencies on the design and implementation of their social policy. 

 

3.     References

 

Horton y col. (2008). Evaluación del desarrollo de capacidades. Experiencias de organizaciones de investigación y desarrollo alrededor del mundo. Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) – Colombia.

 

Innvær, Simon (2002). Health policy-makers’ perceptions of their use of evidence: a systematic review,  Health Services Research Unit, National Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.

 

Weiss, C.H. (1999). The interface between evaluation and public policy. Evaluation. 5 (4): 468-486.

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