Relevance
DEFINITION 1: The extent to which the objectives of a VET intervention are consistent with beneficiaries’ requirements, country needs and priorities and partners’ policies.
NOTE: Retrospectively, the question of relevance often becomes a question as to whether the objectives of an intervention or its design are still appropriate given changed circumstances
SOURCE: Adapted from Glossary of Key Terms in Evaluation and Results Based Management, OECD, Paris, 2009.
HYPERLINK: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/29/21/2754804.pdf
DEFINITION 2: The degree to which data meet current and potential users' needs.
CONTEXT: Relevance is concerned with whether the available information sheds light on the issues that are important to users. Assessing relevance is subjective and depends upon the varying needs of users. The challenge is to weight and balance the conflicting needs of current and potential users to produce data that satisfy the most important needs within given resource constraints.
SOURCE: SDMX content –oriented guidelines. Annex 4: Metadata common vocabulary. SDMX, 2009.
HYPERLINK: http://sdmx.org/
DEFINITION 3: The degree to which the objectives of a programme or project remain valid and pertinent as originally planned or as subsequently modified owing to changing circumstances within the immediate context and external environment of that programme or project. For an outcome, the extent to which the outcome reflects key national priorities and receives support from key partners.
SOURCE: Handbook on Monitoring and Evaluating for Results..UNDP, Evaluation Office, NY, 2002.
HYPERLINK: http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/handbook/me-handbook.pdf
DEFINITION 4: the degree to which statistical information meets the real needs of clients. .
Context
In SDMX, "Relevance" refers to the processes for monitoring the relevance and practical usefulness of existing
tatistics in meeting users" needs and how these processes inform the development of statistical programs.
Narrower concepts: Relevance - completeness; Relevance - user needs; Relevance - user satisfaction.
Relevance – Completeness refers to the the extent to which all statistics that are needed are available. The
measurement of the availability of the necessary statistics normally refers to data sets and compares the
required data set to the available one.
Relevance – User Needs refers to the description of users and their respective needs with respect to
the statistical data. The main users (e.g. official authorities, the public or others) and user needs should be
stated, e.g. official authorities with the needs for policy indicators, national users, etc.
Relevance – User Satisfaction refers to the measure to determine user satisfaction. This concerns how
well the disseminated statistics meet the expressed user needs. If user satisfaction surveys have been
conducted, the domain manager should mention them. Otherwise, any other indication or measure to
determine user satisfaction might be used.
Source: Abridged from : Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) - BIS, ECB, Eurostat, IBRD, IMF, OECD And UNSD - Metadata Common Vocabulary
Hyperlink http://www.sdmx.org/