ABSTRACT
Evaluation is an activity aimed at distinguishing the precious from the worthless, the acceptable from the unacceptable, the beneficial from the detrimental. In present-day public sector management, however, evaluation has acquiredmore specific and narrowmeanings. Here, evaluation is a mechanism for monitoring, systematizing, and grading ongoing or just finished government interventions (organizations, policies, programs, projects, activities, their effects, and the processes preceding these effects, perceptions of intervention content included) so that public officials and other stakeholders in their future-oriented work will be able to act as responsibly, creatively, equitably and economically as possible. In this chapter, the following minimal definition of evaluation will be adopted:
Evaluation is careful assessment of the merit, worth, and value of organization, content, administration, output, and effects of ongoing or finished government interventions, which is intended to play a role in future, practical action situations.
