Evaluation culture within institutional and methodological context: the case of EU Structural Funds in the Czech Republic
Abstract
Evaluation culture began its development in the early 2000s in Central and Eastern European countries and in connection with the spending of EU Preaccession and later Structural Funds. The environment of evaluations significantly influences institutional and methodological aspects.
One of the prerequisites of evaluation culture is the ability of Managing Authorities to apply evaluation recommendations. The main goal of this paper is to provide an assessment of evaluation culture from institutional and methodological perspectives with a focus on EU funds in the Czech Republic.
The paper presents a literature review of key terms with a combination of descriptive analyses of current developments in terms of evaluation practice. The main findings, conclusions and policy implications highlight the need to ensure institutional memory in public administration, human capital development in evaluations, sharing data in public administration, and methodological weaknesses in the evaluation culture of the Czech Republic.