ABSTRACT
Veronica Gaffey first started to work on evaluation on the “inside” in a bureaucracy in Ireland in the then Ministry for Labour in 1992, evaluating vocational education and training programs. In 2000, she moved to a European bureaucracy to work in the Regional Policy Directorate-General of the European Commission, evaluating European-wide effects of the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund. She continued in that role until 2015. In March 2019, the European Commission appointed her to chair its independent Regulatory Scrutiny Board. This Board reviews all impact assessments for new policy and regulatory proposals, major evaluations and so called “fitness checks” that review the impact of existing regulations. In this chapter, she reflects on what she has learned in those 27 years about the interaction between evaluation and large bureaucratic systems, how evaluation practices have evolved, and what seem to be the challenges ahead.
