Evaluation units, located within public institutions, are important actors responsible for the production and dissemination of evaluative knowledge in complex programming and institutional settings. The current evaluation literature does not adequately explain their role in fostering better evaluation use. The article offers an empirically tested framework for the analysis of the role of evaluation units as knowledge brokers. It is based on a systematic, interdisciplinary literature review and empirical research on evaluation units in Poland within the context of the European Union Cohesion Policy, with complementary evidence from the US federal government and international organizations. In the proposed framework, evaluation units are to perform six types of brokering activities: identifying knowledge users' needs, acquiring credible knowledge, feeding it to users, building networks between producers and users, accumulating knowledge over time and promoting an evidence-based culture. This framework transforms evaluation units from mere buyers of expertise and producers of isolated reports into animators of reflexive social learning that steer streams of knowledge to decision makers.

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This article discusses evaluation use in the area of EU operational programs implemented by Polish regional administration, which is an uncharted territory. The analysis is based on the assumption that evaluation is a long-term process producing a stream of knowledge that supports management decisions throughout a program's lifetime. Three cases of regional programs, their managing authorities and 44 evaluation studies completed by them between 2007 and 2012 were analyzed. The degree of evaluation use was found unsatisfactory and limited to minor modifications of the implementation process. The main barrier to the evaluation use was poor quality of evaluation studies, obvious and insignificant conclusions, reports missing answers to key questions. That resulted from other problems: incompetence of evaluators and inappropriate research methodologies.

Purpose:The study concentrated on the process of evaluation of public programs currently implemented with the support of European Union funds in Poland. The aim was to show how the evaluation practice was adopted in the regional administration within programming and implementation of Regional Operational Programs 2007-2013 (ROP). The author analysed what types of decisions are primarily supported by evaluation and what functions evaluation serves. Methodology:The quantitative analysis was based on data drawn from documentation of the full population of ROP evaluations completed in 2007 to 2012, which was acquired from 16 ROP evaluation units. Findings:The practice of evaluation was well adopted in regional administration and has grown rapidly in recent years. 236 studies, costing more than 16 million PLN, were completed by the end of 2012. However, most studies were of limited value as they concentrated on the implementation process, not on the effects and justification of intervention.Implications: This study focused on quantitative aspects of the knowledge production process (evaluation reports). It omitted the question of actual evaluation use, which together with evaluation process quality and development of evaluation culture should be a subject of further investigation.Originality: This study was the fi rst review of ROP evaluations in Poland. It went far beyond the scope of data collected previously by the Ministry of Regional Development and proposed novel categorizations of evaluation subjects that may be useful for other than ROP evaluations.

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