CAS in public policy evaluation

Public policy evaluations aim to judge the measures taken by the State in terms of their efficacy, efficiency or pertinence. Public policy evaluation has now become a stand-alone discipline. Indeed, in Switzerland, evaluation has become increasingly institutionalised and has acquired an essential role in the development of public policies.

For evaluations to be pertinent to decision-making processes, evaluators must have the necessary skills to perform reliable, effective evaluations. However, evaluation mandators must also understand the principle concepts of evaluation so that they can competently accompany the process and then make the best use of an evaluation’s results.

Based on an interdisciplinary perspective, this course will concentrate on improving professional evaluation practices in the domain of public policy. The real-world examples used in the course will suit novice and experienced evaluators, experienced evaluation mandators and all the stakeholders concerned by evaluations.

By the end of this course, the participants will:

• Understand the concept of evaluation and how it differs from other approaches, such as monitoring, controlling or performance auditing
• Be able to create an impact model
• Be able to identify performance risks and define evaluation questions
• Be familiar with the principal approaches and methods used to analyse the economics, efficiency or efficacy of public activities
• Be able to determine key performance indicators
• Be familiar with the specificities of communication for evaluations
• Understand the role of evaluations within Switzerland’s political system

• Students on the MAS in Public Administration course (MPA)
• Professional evaluators

• French is the main teaching language for this program
• More information available on the corresponding pages