In the framework of the Budget-Plan Link working line being developed by the EUROsociAL II Programme, financed by the European Union, an exchange visit was carried out from 7th to 11th September 2015 by the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (MIDEPLAN) of Costa Rica to the Evaluation Directorate of the Office of Planning and Budget (AGEV-OPP) of Uruguay to work on strengthening the Costa Rica's National Evaluation System.

The Financial and Public Budget Administration Act of Costa Rica gives MIDEPLAN the responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the results of executing the National Development Plan to generate timely feedback for decision-making and ensuring accountability at the different levels of Costa Rican public management. MIDEPLAN's Evaluation and Monitoring Area is the entity responsible for coordinating the National Evaluation System, and it is for the first time incorporating the National Evaluation Agenda as an instrument that prioritises and selects the interventions to be evaluated. For the 2015-2018 period, 15 interventions were prioritised to be evaluated strategically by the government.

In this context, Costa Rica expressed its interest in learning about and analysing the planning model for integration and coordination with the budgetary process applied in Uruguay, as well as its systems for monitoring and evaluation.  The objective of the exchange visit was to share institutional experiences and build capacities for improving management, monitoring and evaluation of public policies between MIDEPLAN's Evaluation and Monitoring Area and OPP-AGEV's Management and Evaluation Area. The aspects addressed during the visit included existing institutional models and modes of integration and coordination between planning and budgeting; the instruments, techniques and methodologies used in the different evaluation phases applied to public interventions by the OPP-AGEV and the DINEM-MIDES; and advances and experiences in the institutionalisation of monitoring and evaluation systems, including instruments used for selecting and prioritising evaluations.

This activity originated in the roadmap defined jointly between MIDEPLAN and EUROsociAL for institutionalising the evaluation systems of Costa Rica and other four Latin American countries.

This activity is part of the Budget-Plan Link working line of the Public Finance area of EUROsociAL II Programme, financed by the European Union and coordinated by the FIIAPP, with the Spanish Institute for Tax Studies acting as an operational partner.