Political Use of Evaluation Results in Central America

Abstract

Evaluations — conceived as systematic studies, applying explicit criteria and acknowledged research methods — generally provide detailed and illustrative insight into the design, implementation process, coverage, effects and impacts of public plans, programs and policies. Furthermore, they offer recommendations on how to improve the deployment of these interventions. Thereby they are fulfilling a crucial task besides — reporting information about government performance and adding new data to the existing stock of knowledge required for government action (cf. Chelimsky 2006).