About the PEU

Robust program monitoring and evaluation aims to ensure government achieves the best outcomes within the allocated budget and helps build a contextualised evidence-base of what works by asking questions such as:

• have we achieved what we set out to do?
• could we have done things better or more efficiently?
• should we continue to do this or try something else?

The Program Evaluation Unit within the Department of Treasury and Finance is responsible for:

• promoting the use of evaluation in government decision making
• leading the NTG Program Evaluation Community of Practice
• supporting agencies to complete evaluation overviews as part of their Cabinet submissions
• coordinating the rolling schedule of evaluations
• strengthening evaluative capacity across the NTPS
• preparing an annual whole of government summary of evaluations
• maintaining a database of completed evaluations and sharing findings to inform future policy and program design.

The need for a whole of government approach to program evaluation was a key recommendation in A plan for budget repair. The Program Evaluation Unit has progressed several recommendations including:

• developing a whole of government program evaluation framework
• updating the Cabinet submission template to include program evaluation and sunset clause requirements
• developing an annual schedule of evaluation of existing programs for approval by the Budget Review Subcommittee
• fostering the development of behavioural economics capability across the Northern Territory Public Sector (NTPS) with a focus on adopting proven approaches from other jurisdictions.

For further information, please contact DTF.ProgramEvaluation@nt.gov.au