Report on the cost-effectiveness of the evaluation approaches

Two of the main aims of the cost-effectiveness assessment of the evaluation methods in WP7 are: a) to estimate the cost of the required resources for indicators and evaluation methods and to analyse the determinants of the costs; and b) to assess the effectiveness of the developed indicators and evaluation methods based on the case studies. The overall purpose of the assessment is:

• to provide guidance on the cost-effective application of the indicators and evaluation methods in future evaluations and
• to gain more insights into the impact of monitoring and data requirements and efforts on the cost-effectiveness of RDP evaluations.

In order to achieve these objectives a systematic and structured approach is required to identify and quantify all cost components of the development and application of the tested evaluation methods, and to develop a conceptual framework for the qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of the tested indicators and evaluation methods, applied in the public good case studies in WP6. While the bulk of the required information has been directly collated through the project team, stakeholder interviews and workshops (as well as sessions at the annual SRG meetings) with representatives from monitoring organisations and evaluators were required to collate information on monitoring programmes and to validate cost and effectiveness assessments of the project team.

The report outlines the conceptual framework developed for the cost-effectiveness assessment, summarises results of the cost and effectiveness assessment of the evaluation approaches tested in the case studies paying particular attention to the implications and role of different stakeholder priorities for the assessment of the effectiveness of evaluations, and provides synopsis of the implications of different data and monitoring programme scenarios on the cost-effectiveness of the tested evaluation approaches.