Mandate: Resolution of the Council Consolidating the Mandate of the Evaluation Committee [C(2017)7/REV1, Annex and C/M(2017)13]

Having regard to the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of 14 December 1960;

Having regard to the Rules of Procedure of the Organisation;

Having regard to the Resolutions of the Council on the Governance of the Organisation [C(2015)100];

Having regard to the conclusions of the Council of 10 February 2005 on a Proposal for in-depth evaluation at the OECD [C(2004)190 and its CORR1, and C/M(2005)4/PROV, Item 38];

Having regard to the operational framework for the In-depth Evaluation (IDE) set out in the progress report on the Evaluation sub-group [C/ESG(2005)1 and C/M(2005)20/PROV, Item 265];

Having regard to the conclusions of the Council of 12 and 13 October 2006 on the follow-up report to the review of the initial experience of in-depth evaluation [C(2006)124/REV1 and C/M(2006)16, Item 210];

Having regard to the conclusions of the Council of 17 December 2007 renaming the Evaluation sub-group “Evaluation Committee” [C/M(2007)17/PROV, Item 237 b)];

Having regard to the conclusions of the Council of 7 March 2008 on the Way forward for the in-depth evaluation process [C(2008)9 and C/M(2008)4/PROV, Item 50];

Having regard to the Evaluation Committee’s Principles and Practices (Executive Committee Room Document No. 3 of 23 September 2011);

Having regard to the conclusions of the Council of 13 December 2011 on the Second cycle of in-depth evaluation and Integrating a good practice framework into in-depth evaluation of OECD Committees [C(2011)123/REV1 and its CORR1, C(2011)124 and its CORR1 and ANN, and C/M(2011)20/PROV, Item 221];

Having regard to the conclusions of the Council of 14 and 15 December 2015 on the Third cycle of in-depth evaluation, notably inviting the Evaluation Committee to consolidate its mandate into a single document [C(2015)144 and C/M(2015)22, Item 259];

Having regard to the proposal for a consolidated mandate for the Evaluation Committee [C(2017)7/REV1].

DECIDES:

There shall be an Evaluation Committee which shall have the following mandate:

I.   OBJECTIVE

   In its role as a special body of the Council, the Evaluation Committee ensures that In-depth Evaluation (IDE) is conducted in a systematic and objective manner in line with the relevant evaluation norms and standards, in particular those of the OECD.^[2]

   The objective of the Evaluation Committee is to ensure that IDEs provide a mechanism that:

a)Allows Council to assess whether substantive Committees and their substructure, as well as selected Part II Governing bodies are conducting processes, delivering outputs and achieving impacts that are in line with Members’ policy expectations and priorities;

b)Allows their mandate renewals to be informed by IDE;

c)Informs Council discussions about the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of committees’ contributions to Horizontal Projects, and of Horizontal Project results in relation to their initial objectives;

d)Promotes good practices, identifies lessons learnt and facilitates their dissemination across the Organisation; and

e)Strengthens the OECD’s culture of evaluation.

II.   COMPOSITION AND FUNCTIONING

   The Evaluation Committee is made up of six Ambassadors who fulfill their function on an ad personam basis and work on the basis of consensus.^[3]

   Five of the six members of the Evaluation Committee are designated annually by Council. The Dean of Ambassadors is appointed ex officio.

   The Chair of the Evaluation Committee is designated annually by Council from amongst the members of the Evaluation Committee.

   The term of office of Members of the Evaluation Committee may be renewed.^[4]

III.   ACTIONS

   The Evaluation Committee:

a)Agrees the overall IDE methodology and the programme of IDEs for proposal to Council;

b)Validates draft IDE Terms of Reference with the involvement of the relevant Committee and Governing Body Bureaus, OECD senior management, and Directorates;

c)Monitors the implementation and results of the collection and analysis of data as IDEs progress;

d)Reviews, and challenges as necessary, interpretations and conclusions in intermediate and draft final IDE reports;

e)Develops actions for improvement, recommendations and lessons learnt emanating from IDEs;

f)Reviews potential good practices and agrees good practice case studies;  

g)Validates the draft final IDE reports with the involvement of the relevant Committee and Governing Body Bureaus, OECD senior management, and Directorates, after which it finalises reports for review by Council;

h)Monitors the implementation of actions for improvement and recommendations arising from the IDEs for a minimum of 12 months following their approval by Council.

   Specifically in the context of strengthening the OECD’s culture of evaluation, the Evaluation Committee monitors:

a)The implementation of the delegated elements of committee IDEs;

b)Initiatives to raise awareness of its work and to broaden the dissemination of IDE results within the OECD and its committees, including the proactive dissemination of good practices and the communication of their utility in order to encourage uptake and cross-Committee learning;

c)The publication of final In-depth Evaluation Reports, excluding the Annexes, on the OECD’s external website.

   The Evaluation Committee supports the fostering of a culture of robust evaluation across the OECD.

IV.   REPORTING AND INFORMATION

      The Chair of the Evaluation Committee presents the results of IDEs to Council via the Executive Committee and reports annually to Council on the Evaluation Committee’s activities, progress made in advancing the IDE programme, and resulting outputs and outcomes.

   The Evaluation Committee is regularly informed by the Secretariat of evaluation activities and initiatives of other OECD committees