Evaluation activities...
Underside | | Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Evaluation activities of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
In order to ensure control over the use of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) resources and contribute to the enhancement of ongoing activities and development of future projects, evaluations of the MFA’s activities are undertaken on a regular basis. Separate instructions have been drawn up for the evaluation activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in compliance with the financial management regulations for the central government. These regulations require ministries to carry out evaluations of their activities at regular intervals to determine whether the objectives of their activities, supports and guarantee schemes are achieved, and to identify their impacts on society. The evaluations cover the entire range of activities and thus encompass the areas of responsibility of both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of International Development. The activities of the Norwegian Directorate for Development Cooperation (NORAD) are also evaluated, in addition to those of NGOs and others that receive grants from the MFA and NORAD.
Annual evaluation programmes are approved by the MFA’s political management. The programme is prepared on the basis of proposals from the MFA’s divisions, the Norwegian Directorate for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and foreign service missions. The programme includes priority policy areas and the MFA’s and NORAD’s various instruments, working methods and support schemes.
The Foreign Ministry’s evaluation section is responsible for preparing and following up the evaluations. The evaluation work is carried out by professionals who are not linked to the MFA and have not in any other way been involved in the activity that is to be evaluated. The evaluation assignments are outsourced to interested researchers and consultants in Norway and abroad, in compliance with the rules on public procurement.
All of the MFA’s evaluation reports are made public and published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a separate report series, which is distributed free of charge. The reports are also distributed via the Internet at www.dep.no/ud/engelsk/publ/rapporter/032091-990133. The reports are published in English, with the exception of reports that deal exclusively with activities in Norway and are published in Norwegian.
The evaluations are conducted in contact with relevant persons and organisations in Norway and abroad. Emphasis is placed on organising the work in the form of seminars and meetings to exchange knowledge and viewpoints so that the process of collecting and preparing the information to be used in the evaluation reports also allows and encourages those concerned to learn from the process as well. All evaluation reports should include follow-up recommendations suggesting improvements and other modifications in projects that are evaluated.
After circulating the report and its recommendations for comments among the parties concerned, the MFA’s political management takes decisions regarding the follow-up of each evaluation on the basis of the proposals drawn up by the evaluation section. A separate meeting is held between the political management, the divisions concerned and NORAD to discuss the proposals further. Implementation of the decisions is then assigned to the responsible divisions in the MFA and NORAD, which shall report to the MFA’s political management on the status of implementation of the decisions within six months. The objective of the evaluations is to contribute to a better and more efficient foreign service.
The evaluation activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are carried out in an international context, and the MFA co-operates with other countries in the evaluation of joint international projects and multilateral organisations. In addition, the MFA takes initiatives to organise and participate in international meetings and conferences. In order to develop evaluation expertise in developing countries, the evaluations are also organised to include experts from the relevant countries.