Evaluate public policies to enable accountability (ESPV0008)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Action plan – Basque Country, Spain, 2025 – 2028
Inception Report: Not available
Commitment Start: Sep 2025
Commitment End: Dec 2028
Institutions involved:
- Basque Government – Directorate of the Open Government and Good Government
- Alava Provincial Council
- Biscay Provincial Council
- Gupuzcoa Provincial Council
- Bilbao Town Hall
- San Sebastián-Donostia Town Hall
- Vitoria-Gasteiz Town Hall
- EUDEL
- Euskalit
- Basque Institute of Public Administrations (IVAP)
- Universities
- Innobasque
- Basque Association of Sociology and Political Sciences
- Women´s Council Bilbao
Primary Policy Area:
Primary Sector:
OGP Value:
- Public Accountability
- Technology and Innovation for Transparency and Accountability
Description
Commitment ID
ESPV0008
Commitment Title
Evaluate public policies to enable accountability
Problem
The evaluation of public policies is important because it provides essential information to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the use of public resources and constitutes the necessary basis for accountability to citizens, who provide those resources for their well-being.
However, a culture of evaluation is not yet sufficiently embedded or systematized within the public policy cycle. There is a shortage of staff with the technical skills required to design and carry out evaluations, and inadequate monitoring systems lead to a lack of reliable data. Evaluations are often not strategically planned from the outset of policy design, preventing the collection of relevant information and limiting the validity of results. In addition, political resistance to rigorous analysis of public management can hinder objective assessment.
As a result, public resources may be spent on ineffective or merely continuist programs, missing opportunities for learning and improving future policy formulation. Strengthening evaluation practices is therefore essential to deepen accountability, link results to commitments made to citizens, and ensure that public action delivers measurable and transparent outcomes.
Status quo
There is a general agreement on the problems to be solved, that is common to those institutions promoting the commitment.
Action
The implementation of the commitment will enable the boost of the evaluation and the accountability in the Basque Country.
It is expected to have the following final products (outputs):
- Strategic common framework for the evaluation of public policies oriented to accountability.
- Standard methodologies for the development of the strategic framework:
- Guide of the evaluation.
- Guide of accountability.
- Protocol of plan, service, programme and regulation evaluability (evaluation (ex-ante evaluation and ex-post metaevaluation)
- Protocol for the formalisation of evaluation commissions.
- Dissemination of the standard methodologies developed among the Basque Public Administrations and the social entities.
- Training in the methodologies for the technical and political staff of the Basque Public Administrations for their usage and adaptation to each local reality.
This whole work will include the participation of the social entities as representatives of the citizenship, to whom the accountability is oriented.
How will the commitment contribute to solving the public problem described above?
- Development of the final products (outputs) indicated in the previous points.
- Availability of those products for their application and customisation.
- Training for the people in charge of performing the evaluations and ensuring accountability.
What long-term goal as identified in your Open Government Strategy does this commitment relate to?
- Transparency and accountability as EFFECTIVE RIGHTS.
- The transformation of the evaluation in a cross-cutting one and the accountability as MANAGEMENT AREAS fully integrated in the organisational culture and the management of the organisations, having this management an effective and efficient development.
Primary Policy Area
Other/NA
Primary Sector
Cross-sectoral, Public Services (general)
What OGP value is this commitment relevant to?
| Public Accountability | This commitment primarily advances public accountability by strengthening the evaluation of public policies as a structured and systematic basis for rendering account to citizens. By developing a common strategic framework, standardized methodologies, evaluation and accountability guides, and formal protocols, the commitment establishes clear procedures for assessing results and linking them to public commitments. Dissemination and training further ensure that accountability becomes operational rather than declarative. |
| Technology and Innovation for Transparency and Accountability | The commitment also reflects institutional innovation by systematizing evaluation processes and introducing common protocols and methodologies that improve the structured production and use of monitoring data. While not focused on new digital tools, it modernizes governance practices by standardizing evaluability and accountability procedures, addressing the identified lack of reliable data and fragmented evaluation practices. |