National evaluation plan

A national evaluation plan sets out a set of planned evaluations for a number of years. This has the advantage of encouraging transparent processes of prioritising what will be evaluated, starting planning and procurement processes early, and making the evaluation more visible to potential actors and others who might learn from its findings or processes.

A national evaluation plan sets out a program of planned evaluations over a specific period, such as for the next five years. This differs from an evaluation plan, which sets out the work plan for an individual evaluation that operationalises the evaluation design.

Establishing a formal plan of scheduled evaluations can contribute to improving the engagement of relevant actors and produce the following benefits:

Improve the conduct of included evaluations by:

• making visible planned evaluations to increase accountability for their quality and completion,
• starting early the process of identifying and engaging relevant internal and external actors who will represent relevant interests
• starting early the process of identifying and accessing relevant data and knowledge,
• starting early the process of identifying and engaging relevant external expertise, including external evaluators or evaluation teams, technical advisors and governance advisors.

Improve the use of included evaluations by:

• formalising a process of considering likely utility and timing for evaluations included in the plan,
• making visible planned evaluations to increase awareness among intended users and increase the likelihood of their use,
• contributing to systems of reporting on the use of completed evaluations.

Contribute more broadly to improving the overall M&E system by:

• increasing opportunities for cross-learning across departments by making evaluations in other departments more visible,
• making more transparent and systematic the process of deciding what will be evaluated (in an M&E system where not all programs and policies are evaluated) or what will be evaluated on a larger scale (in an M&E system where all programs and policies are evaluated but some in more depth than others).