Evaluation, International Organizations, and Global Policy: An Introduction
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12358 |
| Published date | 01 September 2016 |
| Date | 01 September 2016 |
| Author | Jean‐Marc Coicaud |
Evaluation, International Organizations, and
Global Policy: An Introduction
Jean-Marc Coicaud
Rutgers University
Abstract
This article introduces the Special Section Evaluation, International Organizations, and Global Policy. It provides a synopsis of
the overarching challenges and opportunities for evaluation in the field of global public policy through international organiza-
tions. In the article four issue areas are addressed. First, is the central role of peacekeeping, development, and environment in
global public policy and how evaluations enhance the governance capacity of international organizations in these areas. Sec-
ond, the contribution that evaluation can make toward legitimizing the activities of international organizations through
accountability mechanisms of communication, assessment, and optimization of outcomes. Third, how evaluation at the inter-
national level is especially suited to facilitate solutions to increasingly complex and globally interdependent problems. Fourth,
it concludes with, how evaluation contributes to producing constructive policy at the global level. This includes, especially in
terms of policy implications, the need to evaluate evaluation itself on a regular basis, in order to ensure its constant progress
as a discipline and practice, and the need to embed evaluation in good policies, at the global level among others.
Introduction
The special section of this Global Policy Journal issue brings
together three articles by renowned specialists of the prac-
tice of evaluation
1
in key areas of operation of international
organizations and, more generally, global policy. Deborah
Rugg
2
gives an overview of the role of evaluation at the
United Nations and introduces evaluation in the context of
sustainable development. Kristinn Sv. Helgason
3
offers a
thorough evaluation of the state of governance of the Uni-
ted Nations in the field of development. As for Juha I. Uitto,
4
he shows the significance of evaluation in environmental
policy, paying attention to the environment-poverty nexus.
The articles build on the expertise that the authors, each
in their own area of expertise, have acquired throughout
years of experience in international organizations, especially
at the United Nations. In addition, in the past two years,
two of the authors (Helgason and Uitto) have developed
and tested their ideas through serving as Visiting Professors
of Global Practice in a graduate seminar that they teach on
Evaluation and Global Policy in the Global Policy Concentra-
tion of the M.S. and Ph.D. Programs of the Division of Global
Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark.
5
That said, the rationale for this special section on Evalua-
tion, International Organizations, and Global Policy lies in the
recognition of the growing importance of evaluation at the
global level, as well as in the challenges that such impor-
tance of evaluation encounters. In this perspective, at least
from the point of view of someone (the author) who is not
a specialist of evaluation but who is interested in the topic
and its relation to global policy, there are four considera-
tions, particularly relevant for the areas touched upon by
the articles, that are worth highlighting as a way to
introduce this special section. First, there is the policy cen-
trality of peacekeeping, development, and the environment
at the global level, and therefore of the evaluations con-
ducted in these domains. Second, there is the contribution
that evaluation can make toward the rationalization, opti-
mization (or utility) and communication of the policies of
international organizations, a contribution all the more
important at a time when the credibility of the public sector,
including that of the international public sector, tends to be
under attack. Third, and more generally, there is the increas-
ing hybrid dimension of the problems at hand and the fact
that evaluations made by international organizations can
help to tackle them. Fourth, and finally, there is the impera-
tive of aligning and making evaluation part of producing
meaningful and constructive policies at the global level.
6
Evaluation and the centrality of peacekeeping,
development, and the environment at the global
level
Evaluation as a field and practice is not a new phenomenon.
At the national level, scholarship of the field places its emer-
gence as early as in the 1800s, in countries eager to assess
and improve the impact of their policies (Imas and Rist,
2009, p. 19). It has since developed tremendously, to the
point that by the 1970s evaluation had become a full-
fledged profession in many OECD countries, used by pro-
gram managers to assess existing and new programs. At the
international level, in the aftermath of World War II, in con-
junction with the establishment and growth of international
organizations and their activities, evaluation took off as well,
particularly in the area of development (Imas and Rist, 2009,
p. 26).
©2016 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Global Policy (2016) 7:3 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12358
Global Policy Volume 7 . Issue 3 . June 2016
420
Special Section Article
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