The EUSDR Operational Evaluation was finalized, the main focus falling on governance aspects, communication and stakeholder involvement of the EUSDR. The final report may be downloaded here.
The operational evaluation measured the strategic dimension, governance dimension (operational level) and cross-cutting and transversal issues. Here are some excerpts from the conclusions drawn in the evaluation report.
* The findings of the evaluation indicate that there have been some achievements of the EUSDR at strategic level, but the overall impact of the strategy is not very high. Questions on the level of change triggered by the EUSDR in different policy fields, on the impact of the EUSDR on national or regional laws, regulations and organizational structures as well as on planning processes reached a mean score between 2.6 and 3.2 on a scale from 1 (no change/impact) to 6 (high level of change/impact). Only the consideration of the EUSDR in bilateral/international issues was ranked higher (mean 3.7).
* The major concrete achievement is the set-up of cooperation structures and new partnerships. In some PAs visible progress has been achieved, but in general internal actors largely agree that the momentum of EUSDR has decreased.
* Not only at strategic but also at operational level it is important that the right stakeholders are involved. The evaluation findings indicate that the current state of play is ranked as satisfactory but with room for improvement. The lack of persons having actual influence on policy-making was the major point of criticism. Also the involvement of additional stakeholders (e.g. cities, chambers and academia) was suggested in order to increase the added value and impact of the activities.
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