This new Commission, formed in September 2006, is coordinated by Ugo Trivellato and Alberto Martini. In recent decades policies aimed at select groups of subjects have grown in importance (e.g. so-called “active employment policies” and welfare programmes). The effects of these actions are uncertain. At a theoretical level it is often not possible to determine a priori which incentives will tend to prevail. On a practical level, the way in which an action is implemented is characterised by operational specifications and contexts. Evaluation of the effects of policies is a limited ambit, and of crucial importance, for two reasons: 1. The importance of actions to achieve ambitious aims to change social conditions and behaviour; 2. the scarceness of resources limiting the scope of public actions. The Committee seeks to define and demarcate the scope of the evaluation of public policies, selectively documenting existing best practices and literature, re-establishing a balance between legal instruments and other theoretical and methodological contributions in order to bridge the gap that divides Italy from other countries in this area of study. After two intense years of studies, analyses, meetings and debates with experts, administrators and politicians, the Committee will conclude its activities in 2008 with the publication of a White Paper, which will seek to identify the main obstacles encountered by the public administration that are hampering the adoption of behaviour in keeping with the proposed approach, and to suggest possible actions to remove them.