THE SASAKAWA PEACE FOUNDATION

Study on Establishing an Evaluation Certification System

9,400,000 yen [Grant Project]
The Japan Evaluation Society (Japan)

Recently, demand for accountability in policies and projects in the fields of development and public welfare has been increasing, and evaluation systems have been introduced and projects have been evaluated to respond to the social demand for accountability. However, there are not enough evaluation experts in Japan. This project aims to study and propose an evaluation certification system for the education of evaluation experts. The project also addresses improving the quality of evaluations and strengthening the recognition of evaluation so that those who receive evaluations are willing to use the evaluation system to improve the efficacy and effectiveness of projects and organizations.
The following activities are planned in the last year of the project, and feasibility of the framework of evaluation systems as well as the implementation structure will be verified. The result will be submitted as a report.

Study on How the Certification Systems Should Be
Members of study group led by the representatives of the Japan Evaluation Society will carry out the following:
(1) Study group session (May 2007)
(2) Overseas investigation (August 2007, Canada)
(3) Bring together study outcomes on training programs and certifications given to individuals (June-November). Develop and try out training courses, study materials and certification tests.
(4) Work out implementation structures for certification. Write final report (March-November).
Trainees in External Evaluation
Eight graduate-level students of evaluation will be dispatched as trainees in external evaluation.
(1) Recruit students for evaluation trainees and recipient organization such as local government, NPO/NGOs (May-June).
(2) Screening of trainees and training session prior to dispatches (July-February).
(3) Interim report to be presented at the Japan Evaluation Society's annual convention (December)
(4) Hold concluding evaluation meeting and report meeting in order to ascertain content of a report.

(Final year of a 3-year project)