Six public initiatives were selected in the first call for CAF and DNP impact evaluations

More than 40 public entities responded to the call to improve management through impact evaluations of their initiatives, with the support of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America and the National Planning Department (DNP, for its acronym in Spanish). Of the 61 proposals received, the selected ones came from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Employment Public Service, the Administrative Department of the Public Function, and the Economic Development Secretariat of Bogota. 

The six chosen proposals will receive support from the DNP and CAF to carry out the corresponding impact evaluations, with the purpose of providing evidence that contributes to the improvement of the country's public management. Specialized technical assistance will be provided, as well as the necessary logistics and financing of the costs associated to the evaluation. 

Carolina España, CAF's Director Representative in Colombia, stated, "Impact evaluations are a very powerful tool to understand with precision the effects and opportunities for improvement of any program or public policy with respect to the beneficiary population. The use of this tool in public management in Colombia, and particularly in the selected institutions, will be of great importance to improve the efficiency of the activities carried out by these institutions as well as to start promoting a culture of evaluation in the country". 

At the same time, the DNP Director, Simón Gaviria Muñoz, indicated that through these measurements it will be possible to develop quality information to improve public management in the country, and invited all the participants and public entities to continue working on their evaluation processes as a mechanism to generate quality information. 

The Ministry of National Education was selected with two proposals: the first intends to provide incentives to public teachers for the selection of places of work where access is difficult, and the second consists of opening different communication channels with students that are doing postgraduate work abroad, so that they can learn about the requirements for the validation of their titles when they return to Colombia. 

The Ministry of Culture was selected with a management initiative that consists of the construction of different communication strategies with territorial entities, with the purpose of increasing the execution of culture resources from the tax on mobile telephone services in Colombia. The Administrative Department of the Public Function (DAFP, for its acronym in Spanish) was selected with a proposal to encourage the different national government entities to register their procedures in the Sistema Único de Información de Trámites (SUIT) (Single Procedure Information System), to guarantee transparency and governance.  

In addition, the selection committee chose two proposals related to employment services in the country. The Economic Development Secretariat of Bogota was selected with a management initiative aimed at improving the dissemination of information of its calls, while the Employment Public Service proposed a strategy to measure the different service routes for the Colombian population that is difficult to place. 

CAF and DNP are committed to the development of quality information to improve public management in Colombia, and invite all participants and public entities to continue working on their impact evaluation processes.