G.O. (Ms.) No. 80, Guidelines for Programme Evaluations, 2017

What the document does

The Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu issued G.O. (Ms.) No. 80 on 23 October 2017. It approves Guidelines for Programme Evaluations, creating a common basis for government agencies to design, undertake and commission evaluations and use their findings in policy decisions.

The guidelines support an evidence-based approach to policy-making. They are intended to ensure that programmes and schemes of strategic importance to Tamil Nadu are evaluated systematically and that credible evidence is available when the Government considers new policies or reviews existing schemes.

Who it applies to

The Guidelines for Programme Evaluations apply to all agencies of the Government of Tamil Nadu that may use State resources to undertake programme evaluations. Relevant bodies described in the document include:

• The Evaluation and Applied Research Department, which undertakes evaluation studies of development programmes.
• The State Planning Commission, which conducts mid-term reviews and assessments of programme implementation.
• Implementing departments that evaluate schemes for the Government of Tamil Nadu, the Government of India, externally aided projects or internal purposes.
• External agencies that may be commissioned for labour-intensive work such as data collection and compilation.

Key provisions

The Guidelines for Programme Evaluations seek to:

• Establish common processes for designing, conducting and commissioning evaluations.
• Identify which schemes, projects, programmes and policies should be evaluated, when evaluations should occur, who should conduct them and how they should be funded.
• Promote evaluations that are independent from programme implementation, autonomous, credible, rigorous and timely.
• Use evaluation evidence in planning, budgeting, resource allocation, targeting, mid-term corrections and decisions to extend or terminate schemes.
• Strengthen evaluation capacity through research collaborations, updated evaluation methods and digital data collection.
• Allow large or complex evaluations to use external agencies while government staff focus on evaluation design, data quality and analysis.

The State Evaluation Committee approves the final list of studies taken up annually by the Evaluation and Applied Research Department. The State Evaluation Advisory Board provides ongoing technical advice.

Relevance to property matters

G.O. (Ms.) No. 80 concerns the evaluation of Tamil Nadu government programmes. Its text does not create property rights or prescribe procedures for land purchase, ownership, registration, classification or transfer. A property buyer or owner would be affected only indirectly if a government programme relevant to them is selected for evaluation.