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An Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has been created by the GoI in February 2014, at an arm’s distance from the government with the objective of strengthening public accountability of some of the important social sector programmes, which account huge resource mobilisation such as the flagship programmes. Conceived on the lines of Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the IMF,106 the body has been created on the basis of international experiences, in cooperation with the World Bank and the British DFID (Department for International Development)—It is modelled on the lines of Mexico’s National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy.
The IEO will be an independent office attached to the Planning Commission under a Governing Board chaired by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. The IEO is to be funded by the Planning Commission and will have, as its head, a full-time Director General (Ajay Chhibber) in the rank and status of Member of the Planning Commission / Union Minister of State. The DG has a tenure of 3 years extendable to 5 years. Its staff will be selected by the DG without any interference and will have its independent budget.
It is felt that the government programmes can benefit enormously from concurrent independent evaluation. Presently concurrent evaluation is done by the concerned ministries as an on-going parallel process. Expert evaluation of programmes that have been in operation is done by the Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) of the Planning Commission— the IEO is expected to strengthen this evaluation process. Main aims of the office is:
(i) To help improve the effectiveness of government policies and
programmes by assessing their impact and outcomes.
(ii) To set guidelines and methodology for all evaluations done by various departments, and agencies and encourage a culture of openness and learning in government systems.
(iii) To connect India to the best international evaluated evidence in development practice and knowledge to learn from others success and mistakes.
Main features about the functioning of the office may be summed-up as given below:
(i) It will conduct independent evaluations of plan programmes—especially flagship programmes—and assess their effectiveness, relevance and impact. Besides, it has the freedom to conduct independent evaluations on any programme which has access to public funding or implicit or explicit guarantees from the government.
(ii) The work programme of the IEO will be prepared through an open process of consultations, including feedback from civil society and will be made public.
(iii) The IEO will prepare the Terms of Reference for all independent evaluations, which will be conducted by selected institutes and researchers, selected on competitive basis.
(iv) IEO will provide guidance to any agency or department of the government to improve the quality of it’s self evaluation and monitoring system. Such support is intended to bring all evaluations under a common internationally accepted methodology, help achieve better development outcomes and encourage a culture of learning in the government.
(v) Besides making available on it’s website and other public avenues, its reports will be submitted to the Parliament and the Prime Minister’s Office.
(vi) It will also make internationally available findings from independently and professionally evaluated Indian programmes in the spirit of South- South learning and cooperation.
(vii) IEO will represent India as it’s independent evaluation authority at
international forums on development and effectiveness and will endeavour to improve India’s evaluation systems in line with international best practices.
The evaluations in areas such as the public distribution system and health issues were among the first to be undertaken by the IEO with MGNREGA and JNNURM were to follow later.
Meanwhile, early September 2014, the DG of the IEO was relieved from his services by the government, leaving the institution in a state of limbo (with little clarity, as on date, over its future role). The debate on the IEO has been going on in the PMO questioning the creation of the new institution in the light of a similar body called the Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO), which already exists in the Planning Commission. The Committee of Secretaries set up for the purpose has decided to strengthen the PEO, leaving the option of either absorbing the IEO under the PEO or shutting down the institution.