Richting een beleidsevaluatie cultuur in Nederland

In the Netherlands, there is an increasing interest for accountability of public governance and the quality of public policy. However, coordination of policy evaluation and the quality of these evaluations can be questioned sometimes. While most ministries pay due attention to the validity and reliability of evaluation studies, the objectivity and independence of these evaluations could improve. In many cases a transparent procedure is lacking and stakeholders feel they are being left out of the process. On the basis of a literature review and interviews with stakeholders this report identifies the main issues in the current practice of policy evaluation in the Netherlands. Furthermore, a number of criteria are suggested that, when met, would fulfil the need for a credible evaluation. In case the Netherlands aim at establishing an evidence-base for public policy, policy evaluation should become more integrated into the policy cycle. This will require an evolvement of an evaluation culture, characterised by interdepartmental coordination, transparency, and credibility. This working report recommends gaining insights from abroad to learn from factors of success and failure of policy evaluation that can contribute to reach the goal of an evaluation culture in the Netherlands.