Evaluation culture in Poland
Evaluation as type of judgement aggregation specifies expected or factual effects of a public intervention. The main goal of evaluation in public administration is to support decision-making processes and therefore increase the quality, efficiency and coherence of public help. That aim is supported by three main functions of evaluation: the function of accountability (executing responsibility), the cognitive function and the function of improvement stimulation within an organization. Among the advantages of performing objective and specified evaluations of public interventions one may name improvements in planning, implementing processes, improvements in quality control, supporting learning processes within institutions, strengthening the feelings of partnerships and joint ownership. For those among other reasons a number of international institutions (e.g. European Union) put emphasis on the development of evaluation culture. On the basis of the results of a project carried out by Centrum Ewaluacji i Analiz Polityk Publicznych UJ (The Center for Evaluation and Analysis of Public Policies) several elements occurring frequently in evaluations in Poland that may inhibit the development of evaluation culture have been identified. Those elements are the perception of evaluation among public administration workers, the way party ordering evaluations uses evaluation criteria, the existing procurement law and lack of rules concerning the reception of evaluation report.

According to the economics of welfare the need (or necessity) for state intervention starts when people experience market failures [Pigou, 1920], the goal and reason for state intervention is usually to develop the welfare of people. Studies of actual state interventions show that not only the market but state interventions can fail as well [Wolf, 1988].
The rehabilitation and revitalization of the unused industrial sites represent new development possibilities and a serious challenge to public policies. The question is how to minimize the cost of industrial changes, when industry has lost its function in some areas and it had a negative effect on people.
In my study I will try to show the value of the effect and success of these policies without which economic growth is impossible, and which make brown field investments sustainable. In my opinion rehabilitation requires an interdisciplinary approach and one need to pay special attention to the rule of the local and country governance, and the ways of redistribution and financial support both from the European Union and the national state. For long term sustainability it is essential to avert the environmental damage, but without any government help it will not be successful and sustainable.

Social innovation – innovative instruments of social policy in projects financed by European Social Fund in Poland
The purpose of this article is to present an example of social innovation in projects financed by European Social Fund (ESF) and discuss problems related to using experiences of social innovation in the process of systemic change in social policy. Social innovation is defined as a new and better way of resolving social problems.
The article is a part of broader author’s research on social innovation in social policy in Poland. The theoretic point of research is related to the theory of the utility-based evaluation proposed by the team of the Centre for Evaluation and Analysis of Public Policies of Jagiellonian University in Cracow.
The first part includes definitions of social innovation and detailed description of the process of social innovation.
The second part of the paper outlines the results of the case study on family’s assistant described as a social innovation in social services in Poland in 2008. The family’s assistant model was prepared during innovative project in 2004–2008 (in the EQUAL Programme).
In the third part the author discusses the role of social innovation in the process of systemic change in social policy. The author believes that social innovations occur in the ESF projects but their potential is not properly used in the social policy.
In conclusion, the author emphasizes that the ESF project could be a kind of live laboratory for systematic change in social policy. She proposes to improve the management of knowledge about social innovation and describes assumptions for the system of diffusion of social innovation.

To reveal the company’s social policy publicly – in the form of certificates, indices or reports – occurs more and more often in the corporate practice and communication. The year 2011 has a special role among the campaign of the European Union since 1983. This year the main focus is on voluntariness, which is one of the principles of the European Union, the aim is to draw the attention of the European people to the significance of voluntariness.
The advantage of the companies’ voluntary programme is that through the internal communication a more effective cooperation can be ensured among the employees and nonbusiness. So more and more companies feel the need of the CSR activities, with which they can create competitive advantage for themselves. The research focuses on the nonbusiness group, and examines its relationships and cooperation with other organizations and groups.
The aim of the research carried out in Hungary is to discover and unveil the aims and motivations of the above mentioned segments, and whether the opposing parties, in economic sense, are able to cooperate for one goal in the interest of the community and environment.
The research raises the following questions: What kind of donations is offered from the businesses and from the civil people? Do they comply with the expectation and necessities of the nonbusiness? Is their cooperation useful? Are they able to solve their problems, to communicate effectively?
The results of the research showed similarities with the literature, i.e.: the influencing factors of CSR are the effective communication, the realized cost and benefits for the donor, the empathy, the norm system of the individual and the expectation of the society.
The importance of CSR appears at more and more forums (CSR market, corporate PR etc.). However, to be able to speak of appropriate CSR that is already built-in the value system of the individuals – especially from the viewpoint of society, ecological and economic sustainability – Hungary has a long way to go as there is still a great lack of empathy, internal motivation and social sensitivity, which can only be inherited through culture.
Communication forms the base of offering assistance, as without it the realization of needs
is not possible. The sceptics often accuse the companies that the CSR practice from their part is nothing else only PR activity, however, it was proven by the present research that the donor companies do not require publicity.

Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment as an ex ante evaluation
In the article the author examines the process and report of EIA and SEA from the perspective of their evaluation nature. This approach allows the sliding to the forefront their praxeological aspects with the correct understanding of the role and relations between the parties involved in this process, the role of reports (expertise), democratization and transparency of management and governance sphere. There have been attempts to review and evaluation of national experiences and practices in this area.

Supporting the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises in the Lodz region by financing investment projects under Measure III .2 Regional Operational Programme of Lodz
This article presents the results of pilot study carried out in July 2011 among 180 small and medium-sized enterprises who were beneficiaries of Measure III.2 Raising innovativeness and competitiveness of enterprises of the Regional Operational Programme for the Lodz Region for the years 2007–2013. Preliminary results show a significantly positive impact of investment subsidies on innovativeness and competitiveness of the enterprises.