The financial and economic crisis has changed the world dramatically. Crisis means always disruption, a phase of disorder, an undesirable and unexpected situation. Uncertain developments are leading to middle- and long-term consequences. Policy shifts on national levels and on the global level are the reactions. This book will focus on a debate about policy change and what triggers policy shifts. What is the role of evaluation in these and future policy shifts? What is the role of evaluation with „the return of the state“ and increased national debts? Is evaluation policy shifting as well? Voters will be interested in reforming governments during recessions. Simply going back to stable times seems impossible in most cases. What are the contributions of evaluations to public sector reforms? Who looks at the costs of inaction?

Stable times allow for incremental change, but turbulent times change the pace of decision-making and quick responses are needed for altering circumstances under which the potential impact of policies is more uncertain. Knowledge the decision makers search for in unstable situations is very different. Usual preparing of decisions or even delaying is less possible in such a situation. Sometimes, evaluations of former policies in similar cicumstances can be used. However, in the fast changing environments ex-ante evaluation and scenario-thinking has become even more essential. Have the quality of decision-making processes and the role of ex-ante evaluation really changed? What is the role of evaluation in humanitarian crisis management?


Prospective authors will contribute chapters to the following aspects:

• Evaluation in turbulent and stable times
• Embracing evaluation in tough economic times
• Uncertainty and turbulence
• How is evaluation accommodated in emergency policy-making: A comparison of post 9/11 emergency legislation in the UK and the US
• Evaluation of humanitarian crisis
• Why Civil Society Organizations in SSA matter in monitoring and evaluating poverty interventions in turbulent times: a case study of Ghana
• Evaluation of humanitarian crisis
• Evaluating climate change
• The role of evaluation in the political process: a case study
• The contribution of evaluations to a public sector reform



 

Finalised manuscript

Summary and contents being displayed soon

Performance auditing:contributing to accountability in democratic government
 
Editors: Jeremy Lonsdale, Peter Wilkins and Tom Ling
 
Publishers: Edward Elgar Publishing, UK
 
How governments use their resources is a subject of considerable importance at a time when many countries are suffering economic pressures and citizens are seeking both lower taxes and better public services. Assessing in an independent manner how public funds are spent has never been more important. The role of performance audit has grown in many democracies as auditors have widened their view from whether the money has been spent as intended, to broader considerations of whether it has been spent efficiently and, even more challenging, whether it has been effective. At the same time, services have been delivered through longer and more complicated delivery systems and the intended benefits may be dispersed and hard to measure. In response, performance audit has sought to become more sophisticated in the methods used while still focusing on the central issue of value for money.

This book will examine the continuous development of performance audit in a number of countries around the world, including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Belgium. It will start by sketching out the main directions in which performance audit has been moving, before considering what performance audit is contributing both to helping governments improve their services and in helping hold governments to account for their performance. It will look in detail at how auditors carry out their work – their use of evidence and methods, the selection of topics, the broadening of ways of communicating their findings - and consider the public policy implications of recent trends.

The book is an edited collection, produced by authors who have worked in or around audit offices for many years, and have written about them. In most cases, they have done both. Thus, the book has the perspective of both practitioners conversant with the academic literature on audit, and academics who have been involved in the practice of audit. The intention is to write the book in a way that is also of interest to those who are the subject of performance audits – officials in public sector bodies around the world and others who use the reports for accountability and performance improvement purposes.

Provisional chapter listing

Foreword (Paul Posner)
1. Introduction. Performance audit: An effective force in difficult times ? (Jeremy Lonsdale)
2. Performance audit: audit or misnomer ? (Jan-Eric Furubo)

The conduct of performance audit
3. Selection of topics (Vital Put and Rudi Turksema)
4. Norms used: some strategic considerations from Netherlands and the UK (Vital Put)
5. The Right Tools for the Job ? Methods and Context (Jeremy Lonsdale)
6. Evidence and argument (Alex Scharaschkin)
7. How do VFM audit teams know what they know (Justin Keen)
8. Quality and standards (Peter Wilkins and Richard Boyle)

The contribution of performance audit
9. What the critics say…..on effects, lack of effects and perverse effects (Frans Leeuw)
10. Accountability, performance and performance auditing: reconciling the views of scholars and auditors (Mark Funkhouser)
11. Impact– “slow and subtle” (Eddy van Loocke and Vital Put)
12. Impact at local government level: a multiple case study (Katrien Weets)
13. Learning in an accountability setting (Jeremy Lonsdale and Elena Bechberger)
14. Responsive performance audit (Peter van der Knaap)

Conclusion
15. Conclusion (Tom Ling, Peter Wilkins and Jeremy Lonsdale)


Current status: the team aim to submit the manuscript to the publishers, Edward Elgar Publishing in the summer of 2010.

Further information can be obtained from Jeremy Lonsdale at mailto:jeremy.lonsdale@nao.gsi.gov.uk


 

• Evaluation and Culture, a Multidimensional Relationship - Jean-Claude Barbier and Penny Hawkins
• Independence in Evaluation and the Role of Culture - John Mayne
• Evaluation Cultures: Singular or Plural? – Kim Forss
• The culture of evaluation in Italy - Nicoletta Stame
• Riding the Celtic Tiger: forces shaping evaluation culture in Ireland in good times and bad - Richard Boyle, Gery Mc Namara and Joe O’Hara
• Exploring the Culture(s) of Evaluation in Swiss Health Care - Markus Spinatsch
• Cultures of Evaluative Activity in the Provision of Acute Healthcare - Andrew Gray and Barbara Coyle
• Sectoral Evaluation Cultures: A Comparison of the Education and Labor Market Sectors in Germany - Sandra Speer
• Evaluation Cultures in the EU: learning from similarities and differences across policy areas - Jacques Toulemonde
• The Culture of Evaluative in Switzerland: a Reflection of its Multiculturalism? - Katia Horber-Papazian and Caroline Jacot-Descombes
• ... there are stated intentions for four other chapters
• Conclusion