CAP Evaluation News - April 2025

This edition of CAP Evaluation News spotlights the report on ‘Assessment of results-based interventions’ and the key role evaluation plays in all stages of this type of interventions.

Results-based interventions (RBI) are increasingly popular as one possible way to give farmers and beneficiaries more flexibility in implementing agricultural policy, while measuring the desired outcomes for the environment protection.  

The report presents an overview of the RBI interventions included in the CAP Strategic Plans of nine Member States in the programming period 2023-2027, and in other EU programmes such as LIFE.  

In a result-based intervention, the definition of the results and the corresponding indicators is primarily shaped by the needs the intervention aims to address. This also establishes a direct link to the corresponding objectives of the CAP Strategic Plan. 

An ex ante evaluation that accompanies the design of result-based interventions can therefore help to ensure that the selected results are well-defined, and the indicators are reliable, practical, and aligned with the intervention's objectives. Progress towards expected results is at the centre of evaluations during implementation. While doing summative evaluations of RBIs, evaluators may analyse the overall costs of the interventions, the additionality of the RBI and the long-term permanence of the measured outcomes.  

An example of the role of the evaluation in RBI is detailed in the ‘Showcase’ section dedicated to the D.2.2 ‘Montado by management’ intervention, managed by the Portuguese Managing Authority in collaboration with the University of Évora MED, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development. 

Moreover, in this newsletter, readers can find information on the upcoming thematic work activities planned by the Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP to assess digitalisation of the CAP, assess the CAP green architecture, and the role of the farmer in the food chain.  

Finally, the Evaluation Helpdesk moderated a panel in the EU CAP Network workshop on the Farm Sustainability Data Network (FSDN). Representatives from the Managing Authority of Flanders and of the Swedish University of Agricultural Science shared their experiences with participants. Costas Apostolopoulos, from the Evaluation Helpdesk of the EU CAP Network, concluded that the FSDN is expected to play a crucial role when assessing the progress of the CAP towards sustainability goals.