Challenges of the evaluation system in Mexico

Evaluation has an important role in society, because it provides affirmations of value, merit, progress, accreditation, responsibility, and when necessary, has the power to finish social programs that do not work, or, on the contrary, expand programs that do. Although the practice of evaluation is old, it is considered that the discipline is in a young stage, as the first efforts to formally develop evaluation theory go back to the decade of the 40s. In Latin America, the institutionalization of evaluation took place at the end of the 20th century, although the process accelerated during the first years of the 21st century. The growing interest was a result of the need to evaluate the social programs that had been instated with the purpose of alleviating the consequences of the economic crisis that the Latin American countries were going through. This gradual process of progress in social programs in Mexico has given rise to the creation of institutions responsible for formalizing the evaluation processes in the country. Despite the above, the desired maturity in terms of evaluation has not been achieved. The purpose of this document is to review the challenges of the current evaluation system in Mexico.