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Arunaselam Rasappan (Asia-Pacific Evaluation Association)

Traditionally, the focus in public sector has been on external independent third party evaluations of policies and programs.  This has been regarded by key stakeholders and funding bodies as a requisite for ensuring unbiased, reliable, and valid evaluations. This is indeed true but this obsession with external evaluations has resulted in minimal or in some cases, complete lack of focus on the internal management system and tools linked with the evaluation function and often ignores the very challenge that external evaluations face when conducting evaluations.

The Internalised Self Evaluation (ISE) is a tested approach for institutionalizing and utilizing evaluation as a strategic management tool within organizations to not only improve internal policy and program performance but to also provide the critical support for external evaluations.

The ISE approach ensures that organizations utilize results-based evaluation tools and techniques as a core management tool to improve their strategic performance planning and implementation, Using the concepts of “kaizen” and “zero defect”, the ISE approach ensures the strategic use of evaluation within a results-based policy and program planning and management environment within organizations to ensure that it is fully evaluable at any time of its life.

While this substantially improves the program focus, interventions and performance, it also serves to ensure that critical evaluative data on the program are systematically collected, analyzed, and made available when an external evaluation is conducted. Program personnel are knowledgeable about evaluation approach and dynamics thus avoiding the “black box syndrome in purely external evaluation driven systems.

The ISE approach has been pilot tested in the Malaysian government covering 7 program areas and twenty one activities with remarkable success. It is now being advocated and promoted in several countries under the IRBM system. The paper will demonstrate that the ISE is not a threat nor replaces external evaluations but serves as an essential internal performance management tool and external evaluation support tool.