Paper Title
Evaluation as a Global Governance Mechanism: A Review on National Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB) Practices in Selected Countries
Abstract
Evaluation has grown as an incredibly widespread governance formula in any reform agenda globally. Over
time, evaluation plays an important role ingovernment decision and policy-making processes. As evaluation aims for
continuous improvement in any government policies and programs, the importance of evaluation capacity building (ECB)
has increased. ECB concerns on the capacities that need to be developed in order to have sustainable evaluation activities
and subsequently enable use of the results. Review of literatures reveal that while evaluation activities have become central
to many governments especially in the developed countries such as Japan,Korea, Canada, and the Unites States,some of the
developing countries are still struggling to place evaluation activities at the forefront of the countries’ administration.
Although there are studies that highlight evaluation activities in various countries’ administration, reviews on ECB practices
as governance mechanisms in selected developed and developing countries are still limited. Knowing the successful ECB
practices in several developed countriesand the status of ECB practices in some of developing countries will allow other
countries to learn from each other’s best practices.Thus based on relevant literatures, this paper highlightsECB practices and
experience in evaluation activitiesin selected developed and developing countries including Malaysia. The paper concludes
that further understanding on ECB practices as an important enabler for evaluation activities is important and therefore
future studies should be conducted to further explore its roles in governance reform agenda.
Keywords— Evaluation, Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB), and Governance.