Programme evaluation is another widely used tool to help EMBs improve their accountability. The boundaries between performance auditing and programme evaluation are blurred. Both provide independent, objective analyses of how an EMB may use its resources better. A performance audit will generally concentrate on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the EMB’s performance in relation to the objectives stated in its strategic plan or other legal and operational framework documents. A programme evaluation will usually start by questioning whether the electoral framework and the EMB’s strategic objectives meet the needs of its stakeholders.
Key questions for a programme evaluation of an EMB’s activities include:
- Do the legal framework for the EMB’s activities, and the EMB’s objectives, meet the needs and objectives of its stakeholders?
- Are the services the EMB provides necessary?
- Could the EMB’s services be provided more effectively?
- What are the long- and short-term impacts of the services being provided?
Programme evaluations are wholly outcome focused, feeding back into the EMB’s strategic planning cycle. They concentrate on how an EMB serves its stakeholders, including whether the needs assessments on which an EMB’s strategies and activities are based are still valid. As they are stakeholder focused, they concentrate on obtaining stakeholders’ expectations of the EMB and their views on the appropriateness and performance of its current activities. In an environment of technological advances, changing societal attitudes, and evolving political and legal frameworks, these evaluations assist the EMB to identify areas of activity that no longer effectively meet its stakeholders’ needs. A programme evaluation may review whether specific EMB services are still needed, or whether other institutions are better placed than the EMB to use all or some of the public funds available for specific electoral services, for example, voter education and information.
