5. PROPUESTA DE INTERVENCIÓN EDUCATIVA
5.4. Metodología
5.7.3. Sesiones dirigidas a nivel 6 de Educación Infantil (5-6 años)
If the objectives of a capacity building project are vague, there is a high risk of poor outcomes. An example of a vague objective is to improve the performance of civil servants. Without any further specification this leaves room for a broad range of interventions, most of which would probably also have taken place without the program. In other words: there is a high chance of deadweight loss. Furthermore, with such a general objective there is no connection to problems that need to be solved by the program. This makes it difficult to determine ex-post whether the program has been successful.
It is first of all important that it is clear which problems need to be solved by the capacity building project. The problem might be, for example, that policy evaluation is not sufficiently developed and that civil servants do not know how to evaluate. If one knows sufficiently what the problem is than it is also possible to determine the appropriate interventions. Furthermore, one will be able to judge after the invention whether it contributed to solving or mitigating the problem.
Within the ESF context, in which operational programs tend to have a broad scope, there is a particular danger of vague capacity building programs. From that point of view it is not advisable to concentrate all capacity building activities in one sub-program. Capacity building activities should be connected to specific policy fields. We take capacity building in the field of vocational education and training (VET) as an example. In many of the new EU countries the transition to a market economy has had negative effects on the VET system, which under the old system was largely based on the training efforts of the large state-owned companies. The new situation requires a different role of the government which should, among other things, provide the necessary legislation, develop measures to stimulate the private investment in VET, stimulate cooperation between firms in the same sector in the VET field, etc. Capacity building is thus an integral part of policy development in general in this field and should be part of a coherent VET development program.
Within the framework of ESF there is one general capacity building component and that is learning government agencies, stakeholders and other involved organizations, as well as the staff of these organizations, how to use the opportunities provided by the operational programs. To some extent this is about skills that are more or less the same for every policy field, such the ability to make a good project proposal, to manage a project properly, how to develop cooperation structures, etc.
The recommendation to make objectives specific does not mean that capacity building programs should not serve wider objectives. At the contrary: the latter is advisable. Take the example of a capacity building project aimed at a better functioning of the capital market by making the market more transparent and reducing the chances of fraud. The
idea behind such a program is that a better functioning capital market will attract more investors which would contribute to economic growth. However, the program is likely to be successful if in advance we specify what the shortcomings of the capital market are. One could also say that the intermediate objectives have to be clear and specific. The wider objectives can be more vague (‘an increase of economic growth’).
In our case studies we also observed that aspiration levels of capacity building projects are often too high. The objectives are too ambitious in view of the available time and resources and what, given the context, can be realistically expected. More realistic goals are advisable. The development of a viable policy theory might help in producing this realism. Developing such a theory is the next recommendation.
5.2
I
T IS IMPORTANT TO DEVELOP A POLICY THEORYThe relationship between interventions and objectives is not obvious. Usually the direct outputs of the interventions do not say much about the degree to which the objectives are achieved. Suppose that the intervention consists of training of civil servants in evaluation and the purpose is to improve the quality of policies. Than we could say that the effectiveness of the intervention is based on the following assumptions:
a. training improves the skills of civil servants in evaluation;
b. better skills of civil servants in evaluation lead to a better evaluation practice; c. better evaluation leads to better policies;
d. better policies lead to better outcomes in society.
So, in fact, we have a chain of causal relationships, each link corresponding to a different level of objectives (ranging from the direct objectives of the interventions, better performance of civil servants in evaluation, to the ultimate objective: better outcomes in society through better policies). From this chain of relationships it also becomes clear that effectiveness depends on other factors too. The extent to which better skills in evaluation lead to better evaluation and to better policies, for example, will also depend on the organizational, institutional and political context.
It is important to make these assumptions about the causal chain of effects and about contextual requirements explicit. Only then it is possible to judge whether it is likely that the interventions will produce the envisaged effects. Such an approach will also contribute to realistic objectives.
Basically, a policy theory provides the intervention logic. In most of our case studies the intervention logic was developed only poorly and in at least some of these cases this had a negative effect on the quality of the program and the outcomes. We prefer the term ‘policy theory’ because it stresses the point that before starting a capacity building program one should have an idea about why and how it will work.
5.3
T
HE POLICY THEORY SHOULD BE TESTED AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE BY A PRE-
ASSESSMENT OR EX-
ANTE EVALUATION As much as possible one would like to know in advance whether the policy theory is sound. In some cases mainstream economic theory might provide a theoretical basis. Of the cases studied in this report, the Czech case on improving the functioning of the capital market is an example. Economic theory predicts that transparency and reliability in capital markets will contribute to market efficiency and to economic theory. To some extent it might also be possible to find empirical studies, particularly internationally comparative studies that provide empirical evidence supporting the policy theory. The proposition that legal security is good for economic development, for example, is to some extent supported by empirical evidence. Finally, evaluations of previous capacity building programs in the same field might both be helpful in predicting the effects of a new capacity building program as well as in framing an efficient delivery structure.However, the basis formed by existing theories and studies may not be sufficiently solid to base a particular capacity building project on. Then it might be useful to carry out a needs analysis. In case of training, for example, a survey among potential participants and their organizations could reveal whether a training need exists and what exactly is needed.
5.4
O
BJECTIVES SHOULD BE QUANTIFIED AS MUCH ASPOSSIBLE