Common Assessment Framework (CAF)

To assist public-sector organisations across Europe in using quality management techniques to improve performance. The CAF assesses leadership, civil service management, public financial management, policy-making system and service delivery. It is designed for use in all parts of the public sector at the national/federal, regional and local level. It may be used under a wide variety of circumstances, e.g. as part of a systematic programme of reform or as a basis for targeting improvement efforts in specific public-service organisations. In may also be used in part of an organisation, e.g. in a selected section or department.

A group from within the organisation evaluates the organisation. The self-assessment group should be as representative of the organisation as possible. Each member of the self-assessment group gives an accurate assessment of each subcriterion based on their own knowledge and experience of working in the organisation. Then the group meets to agree on the strengths, areas for improvement and the scores on each subcriterion. Scoring is done on the basis of one of two methods, depending on the time available and the organisation’s experience and maturity. Broad consultation involving management, internal stakeholders, and external stakeholders when applicable is recommended in the development of the assessment tool.

Enablers criteria include the following:

• Leadership addresses the way in which leaders develop, implement, and monitor the organisation’s management  system and review performance and results.
• Strategy and planning addresses the way the organisation implements its mission and vision and translates this into plans, objectives and measurable targets.
• People addresses the way in which employees interact with each other and manage the available resources.
• Partnerships and resources addresses how the organisation plans and manages its key partnerships – especially with citizens/customers – in order to support its strategy and planning and the effective operation of its processes.
• Processes addresses how the organisation identifies, manages, improves and develops its key processes in order to support strategy and planning.

Results criteria include the following:

• Citizen/customer-oriented results addresses the results the organisation is achieving in relation to the satisfaction of its citizens/customers with the organisation and the products/services it provides.
• People results addresses the results the organisation is achieving in relation to the competence, motivation, satisfaction and performance of its people.
• Society results addresses the results the organisation is achieving in satisfying the needs and the expectations of the local, national and international community.
• Key performance results addresses the results the organisation is achieving with regard to its strategy and planning related to the needs and demands of the different stakeholders (i.e. external results); and the results the organisation has achieved in relation to its management and improvement (internal results).

Each criterion is divided into sub-criteria. For example, the sub-criteria for People are:

• Plan, manage and improve human resources transparently with regard to strategy and planning
• Identify, develop and use competencies of employees, aligning individual and organisational goals
• Involve employees by developing open dialogue and empowerment
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Under the sub-criteria are suggestions for indicators. Some of these are gender-sensitive. For example:

• The Citizen/customer-oriented results criterion suggests indicators of complying with diversity and gender aspects.
• The Partnerships and resources criterion suggests indicators for introduction of innovative systems of budgetary and cost planning, including gender budgets.

http://www.adb.org/Governance/gov_cga.asp