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Italy Evaluation Unit/Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC), Directorate General for Development Co-operation (DGDC) Evaluation Mandate In 2014, the new law on General Rules Governing International Development Cooperation came into force, aiming at systematically updating the Italian development cooperation system and effectively establishing a new management structure. This includes the creation of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Italy’s Evaluation Unit, Office IX for Evaluation and Visibility, is situated in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC) under the Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGDC). The Evaluation Unit was established to conduct evaluations, develop strategic orientations for evaluation work and to ensure the quality of evaluations. The work of the Evaluation Unit is at an early stage. The Unit is focusing on creating a baseline for its work before setting clear strategic directions for the evaluation programme. The policy document “Italy’s Development Cooperation in the 2014-2016 Three-Year Period” (DGDC 2014) confirms that a major effort will go into creating an evaluation system for development aid projects and commits to establishing a systematic evaluation model based on the OECD DAC principles (DGDC 2014). An evaluation strategy has been developed in line with the OECD DAC evaluation principles, while the new evaluation strategy guidelines are currently being elaborated. The DGDC is reviewing its strategic criteria for identifying evaluation needs and priorities in light of new programming requirements. Building on this work, the Directorate is planning to elaborate an overall evaluation model for the work of the Evaluation Unit (OECD 2014).
Organisational Structure and Reporting Lines The Evaluation Unit is located within the DGDC and is supervised by the Head of the Evaluation Unit, who participates in senior management meetings. The Unit is supported by the Evaluation Advisory Board, appointed by the Director-General of Italian co-operation. The Board functions as an external advisory committee, providing strategic advice to the Evaluation Unit. The Unit develops three-year work plans, which are drafted with input from operational units, policy makers and senior management outside the Evaluation Unit. The most recent multi-annual evaluation plan and budget covers 2014-2016. The Development Cooperation Joint Committee (which replaced the Development Board of the Italian Cooperation as of 01 January 2016) is responsible for the final approval of evaluation strategy guidelines.
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Central/main evaluation units
Programme/operational units
Other units with evaluation functions
Development Director General Cooperation Joint Committee
High level policy groups or ministries
Reporting line
Lines of communication
Director General
Evaluation Advisory Board
DGCS Secretary
Deputy Director General Administrative Affairs
Deputy Director General Operational Affairs
Evaluation Unit Office IX for Evaluation and Visibility
Types of Evaluation • Thematic evaluations • Organisational performance evaluations • Sector-wide evaluations • Programme evaluations • Country evaluations • Project/activity evaluations
Projects and programmes for evaluation are evaluated according to the OECD DAC criteria.
Resources The Evaluation Unit is employed by five fulltime employees. It has a separate budget line, covering approximately EUR 345 445 in 2015 for centralised evaluations. The unit carried out 5 evaluations in 2012, 12 evaluations in 2013, 4 evaluations in 2014, and 3 evaluations in 2015. The unit is in the process of strengthening their evaluation resources, aiming at increasing the number of evaluations carried out.
Snapshot of evaluation resources Italy
Head / Director / Assistant Director
Professional evaluation staff
Administrative / Support staff Approximately EUR 345 445 0.05% of the ODA budget 6
Principles of Evaluation Average evaluations produced per year
Independence Evaluations are carried out by external consultants to guarantee the independence of the evaluations. All of the evaluations are outsourced and conducted by external consultants, selected through tendering. The Evaluation Unit itself is located in the Office IX, Visibility and Evaluation, and therefore subject to oversight by the direct line manager (OECD 2014).
EVALUATION SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION: 2016 REVIEW © OECD 2016
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Transparency and participation Italy has taken steps to increase transparency and comply with the commitment to implement a common standard on aid transparency made at the Forum in Busan, 2011. DGDC has established an open-data electronic platform that is accessible to external and internal actors (www.openaid.esteri.it). DGDC has established a communication unit and taken a number of initiatives to engage with the media to reach out to broader audiences, using new communication tools, particularly the organisation’s website, internal circulation and synthesis reports, and to a lesser degree social media and external circulation to development partners. The Evaluation Unit manages its own communication activities on evaluation results. Italy is in the process of formalising a management response system, so that the findings of the evaluations will guide strategic decisions. Italy widely disseminates evaluation results among stakeholders and beneficiaries (OECD 2014).
Competence and capacity building The Evaluation Unit is responsible for developing the evaluation capacity of its own staff, who are encouraged to attend relevant training courses.
Knowledge management The Evaluation Unit has established an archive for managing information and knowledge currently available. All completed evaluation reports are available for public download. Additionally, the Unit circulates evaluation reports and synthesis reports internally in the DGDC in order to enhance internal knowledge sharing.
Co-ordination with donors and country recipients Stakeholders from country partners do not participate in setting evaluation plans and designing evaluations. DGDC participates in joint evaluations and have carried out two joint evaluations in the past five years. These evaluations were carried out with the EC and UNDP.
Quality assurance The Evaluation Advisory Board is an external advisory committee that provides quality assurance and strategic advice to the Evaluation Unit on ways to strengthen independence, improve the quality of evaluations conducted and promote the dissemination of findings. The Evaluation Advisory Board attends each internal presentation of the evaluation results and assesses the quality of each report.
Note to reader: The section at the beginning of Part II entitled “Introduction and key for the member profiles� provides explanatory notes on the profiles.
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