topics of the Austrian CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 and the Rural Development Program 2014-2020
Initial situation
As in the previous funding periods, the evaluation measures in the implementation period of the CAP Strategic Plan (GSP) 2023-27 are of great importance. The legal framework for the monitoring and evaluation system is essentially provided by the CAP Strategic Plan Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 and its implementing regulations DVO 2021/2289 (content of the GSP) and DVO 2021/2290 (calculation of common output and result indicators). In accordance with the legal requirements, the evaluation focuses on the achievement of objectives, the overall impact of the GSP as well as its efficiency, appropriateness, coherence, relevance and the added value of the CAP-SP achieved at Union level.
The evaluation of the Austrian CAP Strategic Plan requires that each general objective of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and each specific objective (SC), including the horizontal objective (QZ10) and each specific topic, is evaluated at least once during the implementation period, whereby the impact of the interventions on the individual specific objectives must be assessed.
The 45 national needs of the Austrian GSP 23-27 were combined with the 17 evaluation elements and 5 evaluation criteria along the nine specific objectives and the cross-cutting objective QZ10 in order to determine the central content-related questions (evaluation topics). The 36 evaluation topics identified were elaborated in detail. An evaluation question was defined for each evaluation topic, which is further specified in terms of content via success factors (evaluation criteria). All relevant interventions and associated indicators (output, result and impact indicators) as well as national indicators are linked to this. These indicators form the basis for the entire evaluation of the Austrian GSP 23-27 (evaluation during the implementation period and ex-post evaluation). In terms of timing, the evaluation of the RDP 2023-2027 will overlap with the ex-post evaluation of the Rural Development Program 2014-2020 (RDP 14-20) and with the reprogramming of the RDP 2028-2035.
Objective
The aim of the long-term project is to accompany the evaluations of the overlapping programs by supporting Department II/1 and the intervention managers in the preparation of the evaluation and the identification of evaluation studies as well as the evaluation of selected evaluation areas.
Based on the evaluation concept for the Austrian GSP 2023-2027, evaluation questions must be able to be answered on the basis of available data and with suitable methods.Therefore, the first step is to specify the collection of the necessary evaluation data on selected evaluation topics, to check the data quality and availability, to identify data gaps and to take into account experiences from previous evaluations.Building on this, further work packages will be carried out as described in the evaluation plan for the GSP 2023-2027, in which the evaluators of the BAB will work on selected evaluation topics.
Planned work 2024
Evaluation topic ET-Q2 Qualification and competence building, AKIS
In the evaluation plan for the GSP 2023-2027, the evaluation topic "ET-Q2 Qualification and competence building, AKIS" was defined, which concerns the cross-cutting objective QZ10, AKIS (Ag-ricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems) and the digital strategy as an integrated topic.
The evaluation question is: To what extent has the GSP contributed to improving the national AKIS and supporting the transfer and application of knowledge, innovations and digital solutions in the agricultural sector and for actors in rural regions on the basis of a strategic approach (Ch 8 GSP) and how can these impacts be assessed in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance/utility, coherence and EU added value?
The evaluation question is: To what extent has the GSP contributed to improving the national AKIS and supporting the transfer and application of knowledge, innovations and digital solutions in the agricultural sector and for actors in rural regions on the basis of a strategic approach (Ch 8 GSP) and how can these impacts be assessed in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, relevance/utility, coherence and EU added value?The experience of previous evaluations showed that there were insufficient data sets available for the evaluation, especially for the educational measures. In order to improve the data situation for the evaluation, data requirements and data gaps should be clarified at an early stage and appropriate precautions taken to ensure data availability.
Education and advisory services in particular are a very complex evaluation project due to their contribution to the various objectives, some of which interact with each other. Data relevant to the evaluation should be identified in advance and data gaps closed so that the funded AKIS activities can be mapped and evaluated as part of the ex-post evaluation and the improvement, further development, competence building of the AKIS and the achievement of the impact objectives can be presented in the evaluation of the GSP 2023-2027 on this basis.The first step will be data research and a review of relevant literature on AKIS as well as the identification of data gaps based on the experiences of the mid-term evaluation of the LE 14-20. Further work steps include research work at funded educational institutions regarding the availability of data on participants in educational measures in connection with specific interventions.
In a further step, this data from the 2014-2020 RDP period will be linked to INVEKOS data via the farm number, which will serve as preparation for the ex-post evaluation of RDP 14-20. Depending on the availability of the data, attempts will be made to evaluate selected issues such as the contribution of knowledge transfer measures to improving farmers' knowledge of climate protection, climate change adaptation or awareness-raising in the areas of biodiversity, soil and water conservation and entrepreneurial skills.
Content/scientific advice on the further development of the existing 35 form sheets/evaluation topics
A total of 35 evaluation topics with evaluation questions and specifying success factors were developed for the evaluation of GSP 23-27. The individual forms/evaluation topics are reviewed once again in the BML (Dept. II/1) with the individual intervention managers in order to make the data situation visible, identify data gaps and name required evaluation studies. The evaluators in the BAB will be involved in these discussions in order to check the data quality and availability of the existing data sources and to identify data gaps (e.g. at the level of funding objects, work packages, etc.). The experts at the BAB are to provide content-related and scientific support for the further development of the individual evaluation topics through to documents ready for tendering. Once the detailed work on the individual evaluation topics has been completed, it will be clarified with the AOD evaluators which evaluation topics can be taken over by the AOD itself in the future.
Timetable
Project start: 01/2024
Project duration: CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 accompanying long-term project
