Evaluations Guidance Documents
Date: 01 jun 2011
Period: 2014-2020
Theme: Business support, Energy, Environment, Transport, Evaluation, Research and innnovation, Research & Development, Social inclusion, Jobs, Education and Training
Languages: en
Current proposals to set within EU Cohesion Policy “clear and measurable targets and outcome indicators … [the indicators being] clearly interpretable, statistically validated, truly responsive and directly linked to policy intervention, and promptly collected and publicised” respond to the growing demand for EU Cohesion policy, as well as for all other policies financed by the EU budget, to be more result/outcome-oriented, and to counteract “the understandable tendency of policy makers and the public alike to concentrate on highly aggregated, easily communicable measures” and on means rather than ends.The current shift of focus from actions and financial means to their outcome in terms of people’s well-being and progress through appropriate indicators can contribute to policy effectiveness and to shape the agenda for budget decisions. Several countries around the world have made significantprogress in this direction and the OECD-hosted “Global project on measuring progress” has acted as a catalyst for the international debate. The 2009 Report of the “Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress” (Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission) has reviewed many of the methodological issues involved and successfully alerted the generalpublic. The Report, together with the work of the European Union and with important advancements by some EU Member States, have explored the ways in which indicators of wellbeing can accompany improved national account statistics and can be used in designing and managing policies.