During her talk, Inés Olóndriz argued that assessing public policies is an essential tool for improving the quality of public decisions and helping to keep public finances sustainable. She pointed out that it is not enough to decide how much to spend; it is just as important to know how public resources are spent and what results they produce.
The President of AIReF stressed that assessment makes it possible to analyse which policies work, which could be improved and how to shift resources towards those measures that have the greatest impact. She also underlined that evidence should be part of the decision-making process and should help strengthen transparency and accountability.
In this context, she explained the role AIReF plays in assessing public policies, working with independence, technical rigour and transparency. She recalled that the institution carries out ex post assessments to analyse the results of public policies and to put forward proposals that help improve their design and delivery, as well as following up on those recommendations.
Inés Olóndriz also drew attention to some of the challenges facing assessment in Spain, among them spreading a culture of assessment across all levels of government, improving access to quality data, embedding assessment in the budget cycle and building an institutional culture geared towards learning and continuous improvement.
Finally, she addressed the students, encouraging them to put their training to work in the service of the public interest. She stressed the importance of combining analytical rigour with curiosity and independence of judgement. She highlighted young talent as a key element in strengthening public institutions and meeting future challenges, and mentioned the scholarships AIReF awards as one of the ways of bringing that talent on board.
