National Evaluation System; a Missing Link in the Legislation and Planning System of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The purpose of this article is to explain the proper position and the necessity of institutionalization of policy evaluation and to propose the development of a national evaluation system. In Iran’s legislative and policymaking processes, evaluation is not given enough attention and many approvals adopted by the Parliament and the other policymakers are not formulated and approved subject to the evaluation. In this article, by studying official experiences of various countries through the study of published laws and official documents, the necessity of systemic evaluation of policies has been considered. Establishing a system of evaluation in the country has also been suggested. National Evaluation System should be established step by step with the development of evaluation readiness and culture. The system would require the policymakers to approve evaluable laws and approvals, the agencies to develop evaluable operational plans, to create evaluation databases and to publish all programs’ results and indicators.