The Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO) was originally set up in 1952 for making a systematic and periodic assessment of the methods and results of the Community Development Programmes and National Extension movements. The function of the organisation were later extended so as to cover the field of rural development and to act as eyes and ears of the Planning Commission of India in rural areas. Gradually with the extension of the Plan Programmes/Schemes in a variety of sectors, viz., agriculture cooperation, rural industries, fisheries, health, family welfare, rural development, rural electrification, public distribution, tribal development, social forestry, etc., the evaluation work undertaken by the PEO was extended to other important Centrally Sponsored Schemes. It is an independent organisation under the general direction and guidance of the Planning Commission of India.

Organisation of Programme Evaluation Organisation
The PEO is primarily a field level organisation under the overall charge of the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission. It has a three-tier structure with its Headquarters at Planning Commission, New Delhi. The middle rung is represented by the Regional Evaluation Offices while the next links are the Field Units known as the Project Evaluation Offices.

At the apex is the Headquarters at New Delhi. The Organisation is headed by the Adviser (Evaluation). At the headquarters, Adviser is supported by a Joint Adviser, /Director (TC)/Senior Research Officer (TC) and 4 Directors / Deputy Advisers. The Directors / Deputy Advisers are responsible for designing and execution of evaluation studies and act as `Project Directors`. The Project Directors are assisted by Senior Research Officers, Research Officers and technical staff. Technical Coordination (TC) Division keeps liaison with all the field units, Administration, General Administration, Accounts Sections, Plan Coordination, other divisions of Planning Commission, Ministries/ Departments, Research Institutes, etc.

The middle link of the PEO represents 7 Regional Evaluation Offices that are located at Kolkata, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow and Mumbai. Each Regional Evaluation Office is headed by a Regional Evaluation Officer of the rank of Director/ Deputy Adviser and is assisted by two Research Officers, two Economic Officers and one Economic Investigator.

The Field Units, known as Project Evaluation Offices constitute the third tier of PEO. These are located in the capital cities of 8 major states of the country, viz. at Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Shimla, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram and Ahmedabad. Each Project Evaluation Office is headed by a Project Evaluation Officer of the rank of Senior Research Officer, who is assisted by one Research Officer, two Economic Officers and two Economic Investigators. Each PEO is under the administrative control of a Regional Evaluation Office.

Functions of Programme Evaluation Organisation
1) The PEO undertakes evaluation of selected programmes and schemes under implementation, as per the requirement of the various Divisions of Planning Commission and Ministries and Departments of Government of India. The evaluation studies are designed to assess the performance, process of implementation, effectiveness of the delivery systems and impact of programmes. These studies are diagnostic and aim at identifying the factors contributing to success or failure of various programmes and deriving lessons for improving the performance of existing schemes through mid-course corrections and better design of future programmes.

2) Broadly speaking, the objectives of evaluation work taken-up by PEO includes objective assessment of process and impact of the development programmes, identifying the areas of success and failures at different stages of administration and execution, analysis of reasons for success or failure, examining extension methods and people`s reactions thereto and deriving lessons for future improvement in the formulation and implementation of the new programmes and schemes. Evaluation in this sense has been recognised as quite distinct and separate from analysis of progress and review on the one hand, and inspection, checking and scrutiny of the schemes and works on the other hand.

3) The PEO is conducting external evaluation, independent of the administrative channels, through direct observations, sample surveys and using social science research methods.

Thus, the evaluation studies carried out by the PEO are different from progress reporting or checking and scrutiny work as being done in the administrative Ministries and Departments However, PEO tries to involve planners and implementing agencies at all stages of evaluation to make its reports useful.