CAP Evaluation News – September 2024

This edition of CAP Evaluation News presents the main findings of the ‘Study on outcomes achieved by EIP-AGRI Operational Group projects under the CAP’. The research, coordinated by the Evaluation Helpdesk of the EU CAP Network, was based on two surveys targeting operational project partners and EIP/innovation stakeholders. The Operational Group (OG) survey allowed for the collection of 989 completed questionnaires from 24 Member States and the UK. The study assessed the outcomes of OG projects, and aimed to identify the main drivers and barriers to achieving these outcomes, including the contribution of communication and dissemination activities and the role of calls for European Innovation Partnership (EIP) projects.

In the Newsroom section, readers can find the highlights of the guidelines 'Assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of CAP income support instruments', which were written by a team of experts during a thematic working group. The guidelines notably recommend calculating the Income Transfer Efficiency of CAP income support interventions.

The evaluation community can also find details on how the Evaluation Helpdesk and the JRC have used the classification scheme to label relevant CAP interventions. A recent publication, ‘Labelling of interventions in CAP Strategic Plans by farm practices’, explains this activity's purpose and various methodological aspects.

Moreover, this edition presents the new evaluation learning portal, a new knowledge-sharing platform for the CAP evaluation community to help anyone interested in exploring evaluation processes, topics, and methods, with relevant sources and learning paths from evaluation studies.

Finally, the experts explained how LEADER principles and LEADER added value were assessed in Lithuania, detailing methods and main findings. More than half of the members of Local Action Groups (LAGs) agree that the LEADER approach has increased the commitment of local people, businesses and civil society organisations to local development projects.  The study also revealed that LAG members were not aware of the LEADER added value concept, and therefore it is essential to make concepts/elements of the LEADER added value and the survey questions understandable to LAG members.