Acting for sustainability of capacity building measures in the field of evaluation. Measuring the evaluation culture in Romania – a well-designed exercise that needs follow-up actions

Through this roundtable we aim to bring into the attention of the main evaluation commissioners in Romania the importance of continuing to build up the evaluation culture, by capitalizing on previously developed capacity building instruments and exercises. Thus, the objective of the event is to initiate discussions among and collect perspectives from key evaluation stakeholders on the importance of continuing the activities of the Romanian Evaluation Network, established through a technical assistance project supporting the evaluation capacity in Romania, co-financed through ERDF through the Technical Assistance Operational Program 2014-2020.

The participation will cover:
- representatives of the Central Unit of Evaluation, from the Ministry of European Investments and Projects, which is responsible for the management of the evaluations conducted at the level of the Partnership Agreement, signed between Romania and the European Commission;
- representatives of the Evaluation Units established within the Managing Authorities of the Operational Programmes in Romania, financed through ESIF, which are responsible for the management of the evaluations conducted at the level of operational programmes;
- representatives of the General Secretariat of the Government of Romania, responsible for developing an integrated mechanism for coordinating the process of planning and drafting public policies and strengthening the Government's institutional capacity for policy formulation and strategic planning;
- representatives of international organizations being active members within the demand side of evaluation in Romania, such as UNICEF Romania.

The discussions will start from the conclusions of the project Examination of the evaluation culture, which aimed to develop and apply a measuring system for the evaluation culture in Romania, using a longitudinal approach by conducting annual assessments. The study is a comprehensive, thorough and complex analysis of the evaluation culture and capacity in Romania, build upon the Evaluation Culture Measurement Index Framework, which has also been developed under the framework of this project. 3 analyses were conducted in the period 2012 – 2024 and the reports were uploaded in the “Resources” section of the roundtable presentation.

While this project brought added value to the overall evaluation system, highlighting its strengths, but also weaknesses and constituting an evidence-base for further capacity building initiatives in the field of evaluation, no follow-up projects have been conducted since the 3rd measurement published in 2014. Thus, through this roundtable we intend to seek for ideas, initiatives in regards with the replication of the study and develop a preliminary action plan for capitalizing on the added value of the index. We aim to include this activity as a permanent subject on the agenda of the Romanian Evaluation Network.

Ensuring sustainability of the capacity building activities in the evaluation field, for both sides, demand and supply, is key for generating an actual impact, more specifically, increasing the quality and usefulness of the evaluation of public policies and programmes. Taking into consideration the context in which the roundtable will be organized, as part of the Romanian Evaluation Network activities, and the specific of the participants, key evaluation commissioners in Romania, the focal point of the discussions will be on how can the network better foster the evaluation capacity buildings and culture development in Romania. Moreover, as part of this aim, we intend to collect perspectives on how can the network better address the needs and expectations of the evaluation commissioners and key evaluation users, in terms quality and role of the evaluation within the policy making process.