Page contentsPage contents The EU has reinforced the role and practice of evaluation in its activities to improve the evidence base of its interventions and policies and encourage a learning culture. We have an evaluation policy called 'Evaluation Matters - The evaluation policy for EU development cooperation'. Double purpose of evaluation Increased effectiveness of international cooperation for development. Learning from past successes and failures helps us to improve the way we design and implement aid strategies and projects. More transparency and accountability towards stakeholders and the general public. Our actions are under the scrutiny of the people affected by them. It is therefore essential to confront results to initial objectives, to better assess our interventions’ performance and the way we use resources. Types of evaluation Strategic evaluations. They analyse EU strategies from conception to implementation at several levels: country, region, sector, and financing instruments over a longer period. The general overview they provide and their related recommendations serve as basis for the drafting of new policy and programming documents. A five-year rolling work programme defined by the European Commission establishes the list of countries, regions, instruments or sectors of cooperation that will be object of a strategic evaluation.
