One of the authors of the expert memorandum, Maksim Tsygankov, head of the Program and Policy evaluation project area at the Center for Advanced Management Solutions, shared with the editors of the Positive Changes what important things happened in 2022 from the perspective of evaluation development in our country.

“It is too early to talk about the practice of evidence-based approaches in the public sector, despite the fact that in 2022 it was possible to finalize a number of evaluation projects, such as microdata projects of the Federal Service for Labour and Employment. Thus, detailed administrative microdata on the state of the labour market became available to researchers. Research is expected to be based on this open data, the results of which will help improve organizational and technological processes of employment for citizens and recruitment for employers[19]. In addition, I am glad to see a growing number of code and repositories around the world with the goal of evaluating and analyzing data. There are also cases from Russian companies, including MTS. MTS Big Data specialists have launched the first version of Ambrosia library for working with A/B-tests into Open Source[20]. We see that it is business that is mostly interested in the proof of practice,” said Maksim Tsygankov.

On the positive side, according to the expert, we can also add that the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation in 2022 mediated the evidence-based policy agenda in the public sector, continuing to hold a competition of best practices and initiatives of the evidence-based approach to management decision-making.

Also, the SOL' Social Innovation Support Center was awarded in the Development of Social Projects Evaluation System category for the introduction of social reporting standards and the theory of change in the activities of social enterprises.

The standard helps various social projects and charities to form a compelling account of their social activities and to formalize the logic of the project's transformative impact. It includes all the data required for reporting, from organizational structure to finances. The standard also provides an opportunity to show the real results of its activities to investors, government authorities and other stakeholders[21].

“We take a full-hearted approach to developing social innovation, and we believe if there is a problem, there is a solution. The social accountability standard tool allows social innovators to be clearer and closer to the people. I want to add that I spend a lot of time trying to understand the effects of social entrepreneurs, and how to help the state notice social entrepreneurs. The social impact assessment model, which is currently being developed by the Social Projects Support Fund, is still very difficult to use to compare one player with another, but it can be used for self-diagnosis – to see your own “growth zone.” The evaluation can be done by the project itself or by an independent player,” says Alexey Maslov, executive director of the SOL center and director of the Acceleration and Educational Programs Department of the Social Projects Support Fund of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.

There are four winners in the Development of Practices for Implementation of Evaluation of Social Projects category. The first award went to the Timchenko Foundation for developing a standard of evidence-based practices for evaluating social impact in childhood and for shaping approaches to assessing the effectiveness of community development.