Experts Converge on Measuring Social Public Policies

Paris, 27 March 2013 (ECA) - Experts from across the global held a high-level meeting to address social inclusion and monitoring measures at the headquarters of UNESCO, in Paris. The meeting took place on 25-26 March on the eve of the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations (MOST) programme.

According to the organizers, the workshop was aimed at enabling the adaptation of the most effective methodologies or to develop those which were likely to have an impact on public policies and the process of evaluating these in Member States of UNESCO. Further, the workshop’s objective was to develop a shared understanding of the mapping of indexes and methodologies available to measure social inclusion and assess the level of inclusion within public policies.

Participants examined the Social Inclusion Index and the Social Transformation Index, as well as the multidimensional aspects of social inclusion.  They considered the categories of people to be targeted by inclusive policies, as well as the social inclusion indicators that are most widely shared. Experts also examined and proposed the most appropriate tools to monitor these indicators.

The meeting was also devoted to discussions on evaluation of public policies with the aim of understanding the best assessment and evaluation tools and the type of data needed for the evaluation and impact assessment of inclusive policies. Central to these discussions was the need to understand how the actors of these policies take into account the results of the evaluations, and how they are presented for effective policy actions.

Sessions explored the links between social inclusion research and policy-making, and addressed why policy makers do not use research results more intensively, how the needs of relevant research and data gathering and analysis were requested by policy makers and decision takers. Participants discussed methods to improve their networking capacities and understand   how social science research informs policy makers in the social inclusion policies' arena.

A presentation by the ECA focused on the link between research and policy formulation and emphasized the need for credible, comprehensive, gender disaggregated data; the involvement of the member States in data collection and the research process, the importance of follow-up on policy advice given to member States; and the need to identify and fill in the capacity gaps.  UNESCO has pledged to continue working with the ECA and other partners in articulating social development measures within the framework of its MOST programme.

Approximately one hundred experts and stakeholders involved in the implementation, measurement and assessment of social inclusion policies were in attendance. Participants included social scientists, representatives of organizations dealing with public policy evaluation, United Nations bodies; and various associations involved in the fight against poverty.