COMMUNICATION, CULTURE AND EDUCATION IN EUROPE, pages: 113 - 123, 2016

The Role of Associations in Professionalization Process of Evaluation

Abstract: For the last two decades, professional associations played a very important role in promoting evaluation of public policies and programmes as a discipline, strengthening the evaluation capacities in order toincrease the usage and the quality of evaluations studies as well as in contributing to the development of the evaluation culture at national level. One of the dimensions that raised the interest of theoreticians in relation to the involvement of professional associations was their contribution in terms ofprofessionalization of evaluation, what are the key elements that support this process as well as their dynamics. The aim of this article is to briefly describe the main concepts related to the discipline and profession of evaluation, based on the existing literature, with a focus on the role of professional associations in development process of evaluation, including related profession, especially at national level.