The Principles and Methods of Evaluation of National Health Plans

Abstract

A set of seven questions is used to define the nature of “plan evaluation.” These questions identify what are to be considered the major desirable attributes of a well-conceived “plan of action” and of the planning process that generates the plans of action. The self-generative and renewal natures of planning and evaluation are noted; they cannot exist alone and actual improvement in one can only follow either actual or conceptual improvement in the other. It is proposed that the seven questions preferred might form a useful conceptual basis for using evaluation as the means for initiating the improvement of the planning process.