Política europea de empleo para mujeres inactivas: ¿cómo sabremos si estamos acertando?

The aim of policy analysis and evaluation is to provide objective information to program managers, decisions makers and users on the costs and effects of public programmes. The following case 'a program developed under the framework of the European initiative EQUAL' illustrates this idea. It is about a European programme in which the responsible administration manages correctly and achieves acceptable results. However, an investigation based on detailed interviews to thirty randomly selected users shows that the usual standardised evaluation does not respond to fundamental questions about the public value of the programme. It can be questioned therefore that, the evaluations which have developed in Europe during the last years is able to adapt to each project and produce useful information. The evidence they collect may be useful for the basic comparison of projects but not to take strategic decisions.