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Use of factors of success in evaluation

These guidelines summarise the main outcomes of the Thematic Working Group on the ''Use of factors of success in evaluation'', and can be used by Member States as a basis for tendering and conducting their evaluations under CAP Strategic Plans.

  • 2023-2027
  • Cross-cutting impacts
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The EU CAP Network, supported by the Evaluation Helpdesk, organised a Thematic Working Group in 2023 to promote a common approach regarding the use of factors of success, by showing Member States how to operationalise them in the CAP Strategic Plans evaluations, with a specific focus on their use for the assessment of the key evaluation elements listed in Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2022/1475. 

The factors of success explain how the evaluation questions and related key evaluation elements will be answered, by specifying what must be assessed and by setting the rationale for the use of specific metrics (financial allocations, output, result and impact indicators). The factors of success establish the benchmark for assessing whether CAP interventions are effective, efficient, relevant or coherent. They can be used as the core component around which evaluation findings can be structured.  

These guidelines have been prepared to further develop the capacity of Member States to formulate complete and consistent evaluation frameworks, and to demonstrate the full path from objectives to evaluation questions to measurement and attribution of the change observed due to CAP Strategic Plans. 

The guidelines include a main document in which the main assumptions for formulating the factors of success are presented, along with a detailed description of the structure of the factsheets used to present the information for each factor of success. These factsheets are organised in Annexes, which can be used as stand-alone documents. 

  • Annexes I – IV contain the factors of success for effectiveness, and cover the three general objectives and the cross-cutting objective of the CAP Strategic Plans. 
  • Annex V contains the factors of success for efficiency, relevance, coherence and Union added value. 
  • Annex VI presents a template, structured around the factors of success that can be used to report evaluation findings, and Annex VII lists the information sources used in the preparation of the Guidelines. 

Author(s)

EU CAP Network supported by the Evaluation Helpdesk

Resources

English language

Report - Use of Factors of Success in Evaluation

(PDF – 2.41 MB – 181 pages)