In 2016, the Public Policy Evaluation Area was created as part of the Andalusian Institute of Public Administration (Instituto Andaluz de Administración Pública – IAAP). The aim was to establish a public policy planning and evaluation system in Andalusia via means of research, training and promotion of actions in planning and evaluation of public policies.
With the creation of the Public Policy Evaluation Area, the IAAP aimed to improve the impact that public policies have on the lives of ordinary citizens. To implement this overall objective, three main priorities have been set:
- the promotion of a culture of evaluation in the organisation;
- the articulation of means to develop and put into practice the evaluation system;
- evaluation of public policies.
The Public Policy Evaluation Area influences all the work areas of the Andalusian Administration. It is an innovation project that wants to improve the policy planning and evaluation in all sectors, from education and employment to health, justice, finance and others. It relies mainly on three different structures, which give assistance in the achievement of its goals. They are the Oficina Técnica de Evaluación de políticas Públicas (OTEVAL), the Technical Evaluation Office, the promoters of the Junta de Andalucía, and the network of public policy evaluators. The latter is made up of a group of around 40 people belonging to different bodies of the Junta de Andalucía.
With a visionary and democratic leadership style, the Public Policy Evaluation Area leads the work of the promoters of planning and evaluation activities. One of the evaluators is tasked with networking, to organise the projects to be carried out each year and to be presented to the IAAP.
Furthermore, the employees are trained so they can participate in real projects depending on the subject, and promote the change process. They learn by doing and become experts in evaluation, which is the basis of the project’s success. Key to this is the training and participation of workers, so that ideas and start-up initiatives can be derived from them. This project not only promotes the improvement of the citizens’ living conditions, but also raises their awareness and active participation in the design and evaluation of the public policies that concern them.