A socio-economic programme was financed by the ESF for the period 1994-99 in Northern Ireland. An intermediate evaluation was made of this programme, by synthesising six separate evaluations of sub-programmes. The programme designers had chosen 330 indicators for the monitoring. These indicators had been grouped into a single data base that proved to be difficult to use and created problems of manipulation and availability of information. These problems considerably reduced the use of the indicators. The evaluation team recommended a solution consisting of:

• Choosing a number of context indicators situated between the macro-economic indicators and the sub-programme indicators. These indicators, intended to reflect the global impact of the programme, are divided into three categories: economic growth, internal cohesion and external cohesion.
• Choosing a small number of programme indicators by limiting them to the main results and impacts;
• Delegating the quantification and use of the other indicators to the operators.

In this way, the size of the system would be reduced to 52 indicators directly related to the main objectives of the programme. The recommendations were successfully applied.

Source: Colin Stutt Consulting, (1997) Northern Ireland Single Programme 1994-99; Mid Term Review External Evaluation