Governments are expected to demonstrate that their projects, programmes, and policies, are effectively and efficiently implemented and have a positive impact. As a result of this attention to performance, more and more governments across the OECD are building formal Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) systems to monitor and systematically evaluate their policy measures and interventions.
Rigorous M&E systems are key to sound policy decision making and ongoing learning and improvement. All decisions and implementation processes throughout the policy making cycle may be informed by and benefit from lessons learned on policies implemented earlier or elsewhere. M&E also contributes to making government action more transparent and accountable. M&E provides detailed information about how well governments are achieving their objectives, which in turn promotes public confidence in government decision making among all relevant stakeholders.
The body of literature on M&E concepts and methodologies and country experiences of building and strengthening their M&E systems are vast. The OECD is contributing to this expanding body of knowledge through a new series of reports on M&E. This report, “Guidance for a monitoring and evaluation system for Italy’s Universal Civil Service” is the third in the series and provides guidance on how to strengthen the M&E system of the Universal Civil Service in Italy. The report is accessible via www.oecd.org/employment/youth.
This report was prepared by the Youth and Diversity Policies Unit in the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS). The report also draws on evidence from other project outputs prepared by colleagues from the OECD Public Governance Directorate.
The action was funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument, and implemented by the OECD, in co‑operation with the Directorate‑General for Structural Reform Support of the European Commission (DG REFORM). The OECD Secretariat wishes to express its gratitude to DG REFORM and Italy’s Department of Youth Policies and Universal Civil Service, whose support has been instrumental to the preparation of this report.