Evaluation Methodologies > Assessing the RDP impacts > Socio-economic and environmental
Approaches for assessing impacts of the Rural Development Programmes
A working paper, Approaches for assessing impacts of the Rural Development Programmes in the context of multiple intervening factors, was developed through a thematic working group of the European Evaluation Network for Rural Development and published early in 2010.
The paper provides general support for the assessment of impacts as well as specific support for measuring and interpreting the seven common socio-economic and environmental impact indicators of the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) – see listed indicators in bullet points below. To overcome the limitations of the common impact indicators in terms of their usefulness for determining specific impacts, the paper examines additional/programme specific indicators. It also looks at how to close the gap between the establishment and quantification of the indicators and the assessment of impacts at programme level.
The document allows for a pragmatic handling of measure-specific impacts and includes
– where applicable – relevant explanation for the establishment and analysis of the counterfactual situation (i.e. the situation of programme beneficiaries if the programme had not been available). Rather than determining a common EU method for addressing these issues, the working paper suggests a set of approaches, in order to allow Member States to capitalize on the work they have already undertaken on these topics. With this in mind, attention is given to utilizing examples of current practice across the EU.
The working paper is available as a normal pdf document and also as an interactive pdf (the latter has colour coded sections for easy online viewing) and covers the following aspects:
- Explanation of the main requirements for assessment of impacts as laid down in the CMEF
- Main challenges in assessing impacts and an overview of the three main phases of the evaluation architecture: gauging the evidence of change; identifying the drivers of change; and understanding change and concluding on future interventions
- Approaches and methods for assessing the socio-economic impacts in relation to the common impact indicators of the CMEF: economic growth; employment creation; and labour productivity
- Approaches and methods for assessing environmental impacts in relation to the common impact indicators of the CMEF: reversing biodiversity decline; maintenance of high nature value farming and forestry areas; improvement in water quality; contribution to combating climate change
- A set of current practice examples from the Member States
- A list of additional impact indicators as identified by the MS in the ex-ante evaluations of the RD programmes
- Comprehensive bibliographic sources, documents and websites for further use
A User Information Brochure is also provided which includes: brief details on the purpose and content of the working paper and how to use it; and summary tables on quantifying the CMEF’s 7 common impact indicators (above) and assessing impacts at programme level.
Read the Working Paper on ‘Approaches for assessing the impacts of the RDPs in the context of multiple intervening factors’ Text [PDF
] - Interactive version [PDF
]
User Information Brochure [PDF
]
Further reading
Bibliography of the Working Paper on the Assessment of impacts of RDPs [ PDF
],
Read the related newsletter article "New Working Paper on assessment of impacts of RDPs" [PDF
]
"Measuring climate change actions: the Evaluation Expert Network perspective", EU Rural Review, May 2010 Read more.
“Evaluation of Rural Development Programmes: Assessing the impacts of employment and social aspects”, EU Rural Review, December 2010 Read more
Guidance note J of the Handbook on CMEF [PDF
]