The Costa Rican Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN), as the steward of the National Planning System and the Monitoring and Evaluation in the Public Sector Sub-System (SINE), has begun the process of promoting monitoring and evaluation of strategic public interventions. The aim is to improve public management by seeking better results in the goods and services offered to Costa Rican citizens.

This process was supported by the EUROsociAL Programme, financed by the European Union, and, as a result, the third phase of an expert advising mission on evaluating the impact of public policies took place between 23rd and 27th February 2015. The advising was carried by two European experts: Ignacio Moral Arce, of the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility, and Stefan Sperlich, Lecturer from the University of Geneva on public policy evaluation. Civil servants from MIDEPLAN and the Ministry of Labour and Health participated in the activity.

The objective was to evaluate both the manner in which public services are provided and possible reforms in public management, as well to impart skills for conducting specific analyses, already underway, in different areas of public intervention. With this objective, the participants were instructed on the use of impact evaluation techniques from an eminently practical point of view and through the use of appropriate software, studying the application of different techniques for the purpose of determining the effects of public programmes.

The final result was an analysis of the impact of the following public interventions: Completion of courses in the “EMPLEATE” employment programme by young people based on how long they worked; and various deliverables from programmes for providing “Nutrition and Child Development” (CEN-CINAI) health services based on the development of the child beneficiaries.

This activity is part of the Budget-Plan Link action of the Public Finance area of the European Union's EUROsociAL Programme, which is being coordinated by the FIIAPP with the Spanish Institute for Tax Studies as its operational partner.