Learning and Accountability: Mutually Exclusive or Complementary Purposes of Evaluation of Public Policy Interventions
Learning and Accountability: Mutually Exclusive or Complementary Purposes of Evaluation of Public Policy Interventions

Summary/Abstract: Organisations which receive external funding have been strongly infl uenced by the call to increase accountability, from one hand, and desire to enhance organisational learning on the other. It has been traditionally argued that tensions and trade-offs between these two are inevitable. However, this article demonstrates that it should not necessarily be the case. By reviewing how accountability and organisational learning is defined, and taking account of the recent advancements in evaluation theory and practice, the article explores the ways in which accountability and learning purposes can be reconciled in one evaluation endeavour. It links different types of accountability with different types (loops) of learning. The main argument put forward is that in today’s complex and dynamic environment with many unexpected twists of events being caused by multiple variables a broader view of accountability coupled with higher level of organisational learning is needed. This is especially true in reference to innovative public interventions aimed at multidimensional social problems such as sustainable development or poverty alleviation.

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