LIST OF PANELS

After the latest health events that have had an impact on a global level, the evaluation of public policies requires a critical analysis of the relationship between evaluative research, the role of evaluators, and relevant methodological innovations in the context of a pandemic.

The current debate regarding the follow-up and monitoring of COVID cases, the need for quick and reliable information for decision-making, restrictions on the movement of people and social distancing measures, among other factors, have limitations that have put stress on evaluative research. These new restrictions imposed by the so-called “new normal” require evaluative research to consider innovation, flexibility, and / or methodological adaptability.

For decades, public policy evaluation has been considered a relevant contribution to public policy (Bustelo, 2004). To analyze these policies Dunn (1994) proposes a methodology oriented towards searching and finding solutions to public problems. As indicated, this methodology incorporates five methods: problem structuring, forecasting, recommendation, monitoring and evaluation. From his perspective, evaluation is an integral part of the public policy analysis process.

The literature on evaluative research has historically debated and proposed various methodological approaches (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed) that offer multiple alternatives for evaluating policies and programs. However, the evaluative practice of the public sector, focused on providing feedback on policies and programs, traditionally prioritizes econometric methodologies, based on complex indicator systems, which make the role of relevant actors, such as evaluators, invisible.

Within the evaluative research field there is growing interest in improving the methods for evaluating programs and public policies with special emphasis on generating applied knowledge about their progress, stagnation and/or setbacks in solving public problems. Thus it is essential to shed light on the performance of programs and policies in regards to the completion of proposed goals and objectives, the identification of strengths and weaknesses, as well as both expected and unexpected results and impacts.

In the current health, economic, and social crisis we are facing due to the pandemic, and with the idea of ​​strengthening debates on how to improve evaluative work, we ask ourselves: Is it pertinent to continue with the sole application of only traditional methodologies? What is the role of evaluators? How do we safeguard quality evaluations that contribute to the improvement of policies and consider the many new factors that interfere in these processes?

The objective of the panel is to investigate how evaluative research has innovated in relation to methods and techniques applied in the current pandemic context, to improve and provide timely information to decision makers and citizens, and what role evaluators play or could play in this context.

Therefore, it is interesting to detect innovations in the field of evaluative research, in relation to the methods and techniques applied or required in the current pandemic context. The panel seeks to learn about innovations (theoretical and practical) that synergistically articulate the role of evaluators, evaluation methods, and critical analysis of policies in the context of a pandemic.

The panel considers the organization of different sessions focused on providing answers to the following questions:

a) What is the connection between evaluative research, evaluators, and decision-makers of public policies and programs?

b) What theoretical-methodological frameworks are utilized develop public policy evaluations in contexts of pandemic or exceptionality?

c) What methodological innovations that have been incorporated into evaluation research in the context of a pandemic?

d) How has the quality of evaluations been protected in the context of a pandemic?

The panel seeks to debate on the challenges and theoretical-methodological innovations that evaluation research requires in contexts of global crisis, such as the current pandemic, with special emphasis on the role and contributions that evaluators can make based on their experience.

In exceptional contexts such as those that have occurred during the 2020 pandemic, the panel wishes to investigate how evaluators have adapted their evaluation approaches and methods to the information demands of decision-makers, as well as communities and/or citizens.

The objective of the panel is to analyze the methodological and technical challenges that evaluation research has faced in the current pandemic context, identifying how they have been resolved, in order to provide timely information to decision-makers and citizens. Therefore, it is proposed to share how evaluators have resolved the tensions generated by COVID 19, identifying how they have adapted methodologies and what factors have determined this adaptability.

We invite you to propose both theoretical and empirical contributions in regards to the following questions:

a) What is the connection between evaluation research, evaluators and decision makers?

b) What mechanisms are put in place to develop public policy evaluations in contexts of pandemic or exceptionality?

c) What methodological innovations that have been incorporated into evaluation research in the context of a pandemic?

d) How has the quality of evaluations been protected in the context of a pandemic?