EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CAF IMPACT STUDY 2025 CAF works! Key findings of the CAF Impact Study 2025 Alexander Grünwald, Philip Parzer, Thomas Prorok
CAF stands for Common Assessment Framework and is the European guideline for good governance and excellence in public sector organizations. The aim of the CAF is to support public administrations in implementing a quality management system while fostering close collaboration between managers and employees to continuously improve their organization. Since 2000, CAF has been widely adopted across many European countries and now boasts a network of 2000 users. Public administrations of different sectors at the federal, state, and municipal level—as well as their affiliated companies and non-profit organizations—are successfully utilizing CAF to drive targeted and continuous quality and organizational development.
The CAF Impact Study 2025 presents a comprehensive, evidence-based analysis of the effectiveness of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and the specific improvements its implementation generates within public administrations. Based on survey data from 197 respondents from public sector organization across 24 countries, complemented by in-depth expert interviews, the study underscores CAF’s significant impact on key areas of contemporary administrative reforms. The results indicate a consistently positive effect across almost all CAF criteria, with over 90% of respondents reporting improvements. Slightly lower, yet still substantial, values were observed in the areas of citizen- and customer-oriented as well as social responsibility outcomes, ranging between 80% and 90%. Notably, 92.8% of the surveyed organizations stated that the implementation of CAF had a positive or very positive impact on their strategy and planning.
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