The EUROsociAL Programme, financed by the European Union, has been working since 2011 on improving the quality of public spending and to incorporate evaluation into the public policy cycle.

Along these lines, in July 2014, it held an International Seminar on Evaluation in Montevideo (Uruguay), in which the participating countries exchanged experiences with the aim of building a set of common basic guidelines for institutionalising public policy evaluation. As a result of this seminar, attended by representatives of Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, best practices in each country were discussed, and a first draft of the handbook was prepared.

Subsequently, in March 2015, the “Workshop on Institutionalisation of Public Policy Evaluation” was held in Lima (Peru), in which the “Handbook on Good Practices in Systematisation of Public Policy Evaluation.  Latin American Experiences” was finalised, validated and approved by the participating countries. 

The purpose of the Handbook is to establish evidence-based guidelines, lines of action and recommendations for institutionalising public policy evaluation systems in the countries of the region.

The Handbook was prepared under the coordination of Spain's Institute for Tax Studies (IEF) and benefited from the active role and contributions of different institutions and countries: National Centre for Strategic Planning (Peru); Directorate of Management and Evaluation of the Office of Planning and Budgeting (Uruguay); Directorate-General of Budget of the Ministry of Finance (Paraguay); Directorate-General of Public Budget of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Peru); Ministry of Finance (Ecuador); Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy (Costa Rica); and the National Secretariat of Planning and Development (Ecuador).

You can read the complete text of the Handbook here.

This activity is part of the Budget-Plan Link action of the EUROsociAL Programme, financed by the European Union and coordinated by FIIAPP, with Spain's Institute for Tax Studies acting as an operational partner.