NRN Self-Assessment Profiles
Finland
The Finnish Rural Network Support Unit (NSU) has been operational since October 2007. It employs seven persons, which means that resources are relatively limited given the widespread representation and visibility it would like to achieve throughout the country. It is a very active unit and curious in trying new things.
The activities undertaken by the NSU is determined in the yearly Activity Plan. This is a practical reference/manual for everybody, not too strategic in nature, but useful for on-going assessment.
The NSU adopts a variety of approaches in undertaking and assessing its activities. Although no formal monitoring and evaluation (M&E) approach has been adopted in Finland, qualitative assessment approaches are used.
The NSU is part of the Managing Authority (MA), the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and its strategy is therefore, driven by th MA. formal monitoring of programme implementation, including the collection and analysis of indicators, is done directly by the MA.
Stakeholder Survey
On a regular basis, the NSU conducts surveys with the objective to assess how well they as a support unit manage their activities.
While the questions in the surveys in 2008 and 2009 focussed on stakeholder needs, in 2010 emphasis switched to examining what the NSU had achieved. The questions asked are often “yes” and “no” in nature, but once summed, they can easily be translated into indicators and provide quantitative results. The results of the surveys feed into the yearly Activity Report.
Mapping of Networking Quantity and Quality
The Finnish network puts emphasis on cooperation in networking, both at national and at EU-level.
Net Effect Oy is an external subcontractors that the NSU contracted for different assessment assignments since the outset. Among others, the company undertook a study on cooperation and networking between different organisations in Finland. The study aimed to map the relationship between different organisations in order to assess the quantity, frequency and quality of networking. The outcomes of this study are presented in the diagrams in the Existing Tools Used by NRNs for Self-Assessment section of this NRN self-assessment toolkit.
Finally, the mid-term evaluations (MTE) of the Rural Development Programmes (RDP) for Finland showed that 50% of the stakeholders knew about the NSU, and that one third of them used their services. For more details, please see the MTEs of the RDPs for Finland below.
Mid-term evaluation
- Regional Rural Development programme: Mid-term evaluation report [PDF
] in FI - Mainland Finland - Regional Rural Development programme: Mid-term evaluation report [PDF
] in SV – The Åland Islands
