Mainstreaming evaluation in public policies in Uruguay. Results and lessons learned in agriculture policies

Abstract

With the goal of improving public policy design and to better achieve institutional goals, the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP) of Uruguay allocated re-sources towards strengthening the evaluation of its agricultural policies. To this end, the Agricultural Policy Evaluation Area was created within the Office of the Agricultural Programming and Policy Office (OPYPA). This multidisciplinary team is specialized in impact evaluations of public interventions combining econometric techniques with qualitative methods and theoretical analysis. This document presents the main results and lessons learned in this process, in three sections. The first section summarizes the goals for the impact evaluation of MGAP policies and the basis for the institutional arrangement. Then, the progress made in mainstreaming policy evaluation within MGAP is discussed. Finally, the main results and the lessons learned from the application of evaluations in evidence-based decision making are presented.