May, 2019 – April, 2020, the Central Project Management Agency, together with the Chancellery of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania, implemented an Agreement on the development of an Evaluation Indicator Platform and Indicator Sets and its integration into the strategic planning system.

 

The process of evaluating the current monitoring of strategic planning is faced with a large number of evaluation criteria, which makes it extremely difficult to monitor and evaluate information about ongoing changes and their implementation. According to the data of the State Audit Office in 2016, almost 1 800 evaluation criteria were provided for monitoring the activities of all ministries. With too many evaluation criteria, the monitoring of results becomes difficult to manage, the amount of information is difficult to cover, the data is unattractive to the public and not always reliable, complete, and timely. A smaller, easy-to-manage and trackable number of criteria would not only make it easier to monitor the actual implementation of objectives and their effectiveness, but would also allow, with sufficient attention to each criterion, to adapt, modify actions and update ways of reaching goals, if it is not occurring as planned. The identification, collection, and monitoring of indicators can be optimized by developing a single platform for evaluation and monitoring indicators, which can be used to develop sets of indicators that serve the planning and evaluation needs of various common national and individual public policies.

 

In this context, EU, national and sectoral strategic planning documents (64) were reviewed, the indicators used in them were identified and a database of indicators used in the already approved strategic planning documents was created, the technical methodology for monitoring and evaluation indicators was prepared. Project products were created, such as the evaluation indicator platform and indicator sets, which were then integrated into the strategic planning system.

 

During the execution of the project, recommendations were provided on the adequacy, reliability and coherence of the set of indicators for assessing the effectiveness of the implementation of the objectives of the National Progress Plan. The suitability and compliance of the proposed strategic goals and target impact indicators of the National Progress Plan with other SMART criteria were evaluated, as well as interrelations of indicators, suitability for calculation of the state quality of life index, monitoring needs of the General Plan of the Republic of Lithuania, needs for setting sustainable development goals and the formulation and monitoring of objectives financed by European structural and investment funds. The experts prepared a qualitative review of the indicators of the National Progress Plan for 2021-2030.

 

BGI Consulting also provided guidance on the identification and compilation of a set of indicators for monitoring the portfolio of development programs and projects. Based on the sectoral analysis conducted during the evaluation of the financing of Lithuanian economic sectors after 2020, the insights on development priorities and constraints gathered during the work of intervention laboratories and focused discussions, sets of intervention results and monitoring indicators were proposed.

 

The evaluation report currently is not public.