Project details

In November 2008, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture (MWVLW) of the Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate – within the scope of a tender procedure – commissioned the IfLS to carry out the monitoring and ongoing evaluation of the ‘Agricultural Economy, Environmental Measures, Land Development’ programme (PAUL) for the development of rural areas. Partners of the IfLS are

• Planung & Forschung (Planning & Research) – Bergs u. Issa Partnership Society for Economic and Social Sciences (PRAC), Bad Soden
• Becker, Borchers, Wippel (BBW) – Society for Management Consulting, Freiburg
• regioTrend – Office for Regional Development – Research & Consulting, Gießen

The ongoing evaluation of the PAUL development programme includes the full range of partial evaluations to be executed during the programme period, especially the mid-term evaluation in 2010 and the ex-post evaluation in 2015. The system of ongoing evaluation – which is aimed at EU-wide for the support period 2007-2013 – implies an advancement of tasks com-pared to past evaluation systems, where ex-ante, mid-term and ex-post evaluations provided an assessment only at fixed points in time. The corresponding recommendations were therefore partly formulated too late to be able to implement changes in the programme’s execution. Ongoing evaluation is a more continuous process, regarding – on the one hand – the advancement of evaluation methods. On the other hand, recommendations concerning improvements addressed to the administrative authority can be realised during the process of programme implementation, thus facilitating more timely responses if need be. Ongoing evaluation entails a close cooperation and interactive collaboration between the persons in charge of PAUL and those in charge of evaluation.