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Evaluation frameworks viewed as critical foundation for future CAP evaluation plans

70 participants from 23 EU Member States attended a Good Practice Workshop on designing CAP evaluation plans and highlighted how an evaluation framework can act as the foundation for effective assessments in the future.

Evaluation frameworks viewed as critical foundation for future CAP evaluation plans

The European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP organised its third Good Practice Workshop on evaluation plans. During the workshop, EU Member States highlighted how an indicative evaluation framework could act as the foundation for effective assessments in the 2023-27 programming period.

The Good Practice Workshop took place in Prague, Czechia, on 30-31 March and was aimed at exchanging practical experiences in preparing an effective CAP evaluation plan, which describes how EU Member States will evaluate their CAP Strategic Plans and how they intend to use subsequent results to improve implementation and future policy making.

Evaluation frameworks viewed as critical foundation for future CAP evaluation plans

During the workshop, which was attended by 70 evaluation stakeholders from 23 different EU Member States, several participants discussed ways to establish a robust evaluation framework. This included creating clear links between a CAP Strategic Plan's intervention logic and the respective evaluation plan, as well as preparing overarching and annual operational plans, and conducting thematic evaluations during the implementation period. Participants also stressed the importance of designing evaluation questions and success factors for all evaluation criteria and considering various timelines to accommodate data availability and delivery mechanisms.

Beyond developing an evaluation framework, other key messages from the workshop focused on how determining and linking evaluation criteria, questions, factors of success and data sources can help structure and determine the main evaluation activities and initiate the process for identifying and addressing data gaps.

Evaluation frameworks viewed as critical foundation for future CAP evaluation plans

Additionally, stakeholder involvement proved to be a significant part of an effective evaluation plan process. Participants said that stakeholders, such as National Networks, environmental authorities and farmers, could be consulted during the design phase of plans to capture better input in both the short- and long-term, such as identifying needs, deciding on evaluation criteria and key indicators, and planning the types of evaluations required, as well as how to best disseminate findings to the right audience.

The insights gained from the workshop will now help EU Member States effectively design their evaluation plans and implement evaluations of their CAP Strategic Plans. Highlights from the event can be found here while a final report condensing the key points from the Good Practice Workshop will be published on the EU CAP Network website soon.