Politics of Evaluation in International Organizations
Regular price
€86.99
14 days return policy
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Steffen Eckhard
A01=Vytautas Jankauskas
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Steffen Eckhard
Author_Vytautas Jankauskas
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JPH
Category=JPP
Category=JPSN
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Language_English
PA=Available
Price_€50 to €100
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9780192855206
- Weight: 524g
- Dimensions: 164 x 240mm
- Publication Date: 25 May 2023
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Evaluation has become a key tool in assessing the performance of international organizations, in fostering learning, and in demonstrating accountability. Within the United Nations (UN) system, thousands of evaluators and consultants produce hundreds of evaluation reports worth millions of dollars every year. But does evaluation really deliver on its promise of objective evidence and functional use?
By unravelling the internal machinery of evaluation systems in international organizations, this book challenges the conventional understanding of evaluation as a value-free activity. Vytautas Jankauskas and Steffen Eckhard show how a seemingly neutral technocratic tool can serve as an instrument for power in global governance; they demonstrate and explain how deeply politics are entrenched in the interests of evaluation stakeholders, in the control and design of IO evaluation systems, and to a lesser extent also in the content of evaluation reports. The analysis draws on 120 research interviews with evaluators, member state representatives, and IO secretariat officials as well as on textual analysis of over 200 evaluation reports. The investigation covers 21 UN system organizations, including detailed case studies of the ILO, IMF, UNDP, UN WOMEN, IOM, UNHCR, FAO, WHO, and UNESCO.
Shedding light on the (in-)effectiveness of evidence-based policymaking, the authors propose possible ways of better reconciling the observed evaluation politics with the need to gather reliable evidence that is used to improve the functioning of the United Nations. The answer to evaluation politics is not to abandon evaluation or isolate it from the stakeholders but to acknowledge surrounding political interests and design evaluation systems accordingly.
Vytautas Jankauskas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Zeppelin University, and an Associate Research Fellow at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
Steffen Eckhard is Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at Zeppelin University. He is also affiliated with the 'Politics of Inequality' Center of Excellence at the University of Konstanz and is a Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin.
