POLICY EVALUATION - PUBLIC POLICY

Evaluation of policy is extolled as an indispensable aspect of any policy process. Besides, though ii is highlighted in policy •study texts, it is rarely put into practice. Policy evaluation suffers some set-back because it is politically delicate.

This feature makes it difficult, rarely conclusive and politically unpopular. As precisely explicated by Leslie A. Pal (1997:233), because evaluation is so potentially crucial to the fortunes of a policy or program, opponents and supporters work hard to get the evaluation results they need to strengthen their case.

Although policy evaluation is hardly supported by government or third party, i.e consultant, the evaluation is vital to achieve results; and consequently, put anew pressure on government, an action that promotes policy modification. Policy evaluation as the last of policy process exists along side monitoring. Monitoring provides the necessary information for evaluation. According to Egonmwan (1991:3 11), monitoring gives warning signals to management about actual or potential problems in programmes implementation. It involves operational assessment of individual projects through measurement, recording, collection, processing and communication of in formation to project management decision making.
Evaluation as a concept has been given varied definition by many scholars. For instance, E.S. Quade (1975) defines evaluation as the investigation to measure how well the accomplishment of an on going programme of’ less frequently a completed programme, matches the anticipated accomplishment.
Again evaluation is defined by Frank Lewis and Frank Zarh (1974:308) as the  systematic analysis of programmes desired to asses effectiveness in attaining objectives or to assess their Efficiency.
In addition, Egonmwan (1991:3110 sees evaluation as a process by which programmes, activities and results are anal vied against explicitly norms, line work sc4 project objective.
Going by these definitions, policy evaluation concerns itself, with improvement of public policies and programmes. This actions may seem simple, but determining whether a programmes has achieved its intended desire in a world in which every effect has multiple causes are always difficult, if not impossible. Ikelegbe (1996: 1 14) concludes that, by a way of summary, evaluation provides comprehensive data analysis, measures and asses the programmes to determine performance, impact, worth, problems and the improvements and modifications that may be a need. 
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