Our areas of research in this field are:

• Empowerment evaluation.
• Evaluation of European policies and programmes.
• Evaluation of project in development cooperation.
  
  

Evaluation is one of the priority research areas of GESPLAN, especially the evaluation of policies related to regional and rural development within the EU, education, research, or development cooperation. GESPLAN has partnerships with American universities such as Stanford, as the US has a rich research tradition in evaluation and  institutionalization of evaluation practices within public administration.

Evaluation plays a key role in development programs and projects, although it needs to be emphasized that evaluation is applicable far beyond proofing the feasibility of an investment. Using evaluation adequate can strengthen and develop capacities among the people, without jeopardizing the results for research purpose. That is why GESPLAN works and investigates based on participatory evaluation methodologies such as “utilization-focused evaluation”, “stakeholder-based evaluation” or “empowerment evaluation”. These methodologies have been applied in collaboration with international organizations such as the EU Commission, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) or with regional governments in Spain and with national governments in Spain, Mexico or Peru, or private companies like IDOM.

Examining the conditions of public and private decision-making often shows that developmental and territorial cohesion policies frequently suffer from a lack of scientific basis. The overall objective of GESPLAN therefore is to contribute to overcome this barrier by transferring our finding to the institutions responsible for promoting development, cohesion and social integration. Our contribution goes beyond generating knowledge, by providing results which improve social welfare leading to positive and direct consequences on public quality of life.