Evaluation really took shape in Benin in the 2000s. Then it gradually spread throughout the public sphere. However, it struggles to take root, to take a more important place to become an everyday practice, a culture.
The implementation of the National Evaluation Policy revealed the need to have an institutional evaluation framework in Benin. This is how the Institutional Framework for the Evaluation of Public Policies (CIÉPP) of Benin was created. It defines the relationships and roles between the different identified stakeholders, and includes the coordination and execution structures of the National Evaluation Policy (NEP) at the national level, the implementation structures at the sectoral, decentralized and local authorities, advisory or monitoring bodies and non-state stakeholders.
Years of application later, the mid-term evaluation of the implementation of the National Evaluation Policy in Benin revealed that the system “is characterized by an inefficient public administration, insufficient optimization of allocation of public resources, weak accountability due to the non-rooting of the evaluative culture in Benin.”
At the level of each sector, studies also show that the implementation of the PNE does not have a significant influence on the improvement of evaluation practices; especially the ministries prioritize evaluation activities less.
The 2019 “Evaluation of the implementation of the National Evaluation Policy (NEP) 2012-2021 and development of its 2020-2021 action plan” report already established that the resources allocated to evaluation activities in ministries have relatively remained stable and generally do not exceed 1.5% of the total allocated budget considering the period 2013-2018.
