Assessing digitalisation under the CAP Strategic Plans

This thematic report, prepared by the European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP under the Thematic Working Group (TWG) on 'Assessing digitalisation under the CAP Strategic Plans', creates a common understanding of the theoretical framework that defines the role of digitalisation in the agri-food sector and rural areas, ensuring all stakeholders share a unified perspective on digital transformation. It also provides practical solutions for identifying digitalisation-related interventions and developing robust intervention logic for digitalisation under CAP Strategic Plans. Finally, it delivers key considerations for structuring and approaching comprehensive assessments of digitalisation under CAP Strategic Plans.

The report examines data as an additional factor of production, exploring how digitalisation extends beyond traditional agri-food value chains to create emerging value chains based on the data economy. This perspective helps evaluators understand the broader economic impact of digital transformation in agriculture.

A detailed three-tier classification system for digitalisation provides a practical tool for identifying digitalisation-related interventions and capturing digital transformation. This system tracks the natural progression from infrastructure development to equipment purchasing, and finally to the deployment of sophisticated applications and fostering of the data economy.

This system can be used to develop an intervention logic that underpins the assessment of digitalisation. The report presents a generic intervention logic that helps distinguish between two critical aspects: the effect of CAP support in fostering digitalisation and the effect of CAP-supported digitalisation on achieving specific policy objectives. This framework enables a more precise assessment of the effects.

Key considerations with references to specific methods guide evaluators in assessing the main impacts of CAP support for digitalisation. These methodological insights ensure robust and consistent evaluation approaches across different contexts.

The methodological considerations are complemented by a comprehensive list of data sources and considerations for primary data collection that provide practical support for gathering the evidence needed to conduct thorough digitalisation assessments.