The Evaluation of Rural Development Policy in the EU L’évaluation de la politique de développement rural dans l’Union européenne Die Evaluation der Politik zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums in der EU

Bradley, Dylan, Dwyer, Janet C ORCID: 0000-0002-2332-9832 and Hill, Berkeley (2010) The Evaluation of Rural Development Policy in the EU L’évaluation de la politique de développement rural dans l’Union européenne Die Evaluation der Politik zur Entwicklung des ländlichen Raums in der EU. EuroChoices, 9 (1). pp. 15-20. doi:10.1111/j.1746-692X.2010.00148.x

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Abstract

Evaluation is firmly established as part of rural development policymaking in the EU. A requirement to evaluate is set out in the Rural Development Regulation, the legal basis for spending EU funds on agreed aspects of rural development, which also stipulates the process to be used. Member States are responsible for ensuring that independent ex ante, mid-term and ex post evaluations are carried out for each seven-year Rural Development Programme (RDP), but with inputs from the Commission, notably on common evaluation questions to be used in all countries. Such a heavily structured system has both advantages and disadvantages. Consistency of approach enables synthesis of evaluation results at the EU level and provides a degree of quality control. However, it constrains the ability of evaluators to pursue issues which may be of importance locally or to other stakeholders. Technical details, especially the timing of evaluation stages, also diminish the ability to learn from past programmes. Data availability remains an important issue. Nevertheless, our experience is that it is both possible and important to learn from evaluating RDPs, not only to measure their apparent achievements, but also to enhance the quality of the policy process, at all levels.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > Countryside and Community Research Institute
Research Priority Areas:	Place, Environment and Community
Depositing User:	Anne Pengelly
Date Deposited:	04 Apr 2014 14:01
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2021 21:27
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/364

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