Incorporation of the National Evaluation Capacity Index (INCE) in the National Evaluation Policy of Costa Rica

The Ministry of Planning and Economic Policy of Costa Rica (Mideplan) has proposed including the National Evaluation Capacity Index (INCE) as a strategic indicator to monitor the progress of the National Evaluation Policy 2018-2030. The proposal was made official by the head of the Evaluation Unit, Eddy García Serrano, at the last meeting of the National Evaluation Platform held on October 7^th. This is a forum which brings together the main entities related to evaluation in the country.

The INCE is an indicator that measures evaluation capacity on a biannual basis by aggregating information related to the main dimensions of the national evaluation systems: institutional structure, evaluation offering, quality of evaluations, participation and use. After each measurement, the team of professionals in charge of INCE offers the countries the opportunity to organize a multi-stakeholder workshop to interpret the results and propose development actions.

Mideplan organized the first workshop for the interpretation and use of the INCE 2020 results in May 2021. The data was interpreted using the National Evaluation Policy as a reference, meaning that the information provided by INCE reinforced the implementation of the policy with data and commitment from new stakeholder groups.

For DEval, the initiative constitutes a very positive outcome in terms of sustainability, appropriation and complementarity between the actions of the Focelac+ project, since at the time Mideplan and DEval decided to rely on the National Platform and the National Evaluation Policy as the central instruments for consolidating evaluation in the country. The implementation of the INCE announced by Mideplan ensures that this instrument will be integrated into the policy to develop evaluation in the country, and will undoubtedly be a good practice to propose to other countries in the region.