VAN DIJK MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS have more than 15 years of experience in evaluating the performances of policies and projects as a support to decision-making.

The methodologies used are continuously upgraded in conformity with international evaluation standards and are customised to each specific mission assigned.  Our services are based on the use of indicators and statistical tools for data collection and processing.  We also triangulate the information sources to avoid biases and we devote particular attention to rigorously allocating effects to specific factors among which the concerned policy, project or activity.

Our experience concerns areas as various as health and consumer policy, internal market, retail financial services, R&D, energy policy, prevention of violence, etc.  This diversity is possible thanks to our presence within European networks of experts and our privileged access to informational resources.

Performance monitoring

Monitoring the performances of e.g. an activity consists of collecting and analysing at regular intervals - even continuously - information about elements such as the use of the allocated budget, the progress of the activity and of its outputs.  This monitoring is based on an information system that includes reports, synthesis, indicators, etc.  It contributes to identifying the strenghts and weaknesses and to reacting to changing circumstances.

Mid-term evaluation

Is carried out at the mid term of a project or activity, which implies the following two main characteristics:

-  It focuses more on the outputs and results than on the impacts, for the obvious reasons that impacts mainly appear once the project or the activity is finished.

-  It provides information that the managers can directly use during the second part of the project or activity in order to increase its performances.

This evaluation uses the information provided through the performance monitoring as well as any other information on the context of the project or activity.

Ex-post evaluation and impact analysis

This evaluation analyses and judges the project or the activity after its end.  It concerns elements like efficiency, effectiveness and utility.

The analysis also identifies elements contributing to the success or failure and helps understanding the way they influence the generation of impacts.  If the objective is to evaluate impacts that were effectively generated, the ex-post evaluation has to be carried out well after the end of the concerned project or activity, taking into account the time necessary for the generation of the impacts.