In late 2013, the Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs asked the Danish Centre for Rural Research and the consultancy LandLabDK to prepare an evaluation of the 57 Local Action Group (LAG) local development strategies in the Rural Development Programme and Fisheries Programme 2007-2013. This included making recommendations for a possible future project prioritization tool as well as an evaluation tool targeted towards the local development strategies. The evaluation work was designed with three areas of investigation in relation to the local development strategies: 1) Mobilization, 2) Implementation and 3) Evaluation.
The report is based on an analytical review of the local development strategies made in NVivo, a questionnaire addressed to the coordinators and chairmen of all 57 LAGs, a half-day focus group with the participation of a variety of coordinators and chairmen and a review of the centrally published and produced legal framework, guidelines and presentations. In addition, there has been an interview with the Network Unit, as well as a dialogue meeting with a representative of the Austrian Network Unit. The final evaluation is disposed in two reports: ‘REPORT 1: Evaluation of LAG development strategies under the Rural Development Programme and Fisheries Programme 2007-2013. Recommendations for 2014-2020’ and ‘REPORT 2: Toward future project prioritization and evaluation tools for local development strategies. Summary and recommendations for 2014-2020’. Both reports are only available in Danish.
The evaluation shows that the Network Unit has had a huge and demanding task in getting the formal and bureaucratic basis and the local organization with LAGs as associations to fall into place. The mobilization effort was therefore primarily directed towards the LAG board of directors and coordinators to allow the LAG and local development strategies to be approved and declared running. This mobilization strategy proved on the one hand appropriate as the associational organization with open access to membership of the LAG association and vote at general meetings may be said to have increased the LAGs legitimacy, and thus their ability to execute and implement the local development strategies in the programme period 2007-2013. On the other hand, the evaluation shows that in the implementation phase of the local development strategies there is a need to be able to relate more strategically to both the local development strategies’ implementation and achievement of goals, as to the prioritization of projects and activities to implement the strategy.
The evaluation therefore recommends a more distinct focus on the intervention logic behind the local development strategies as a common methodological framework for future development strategies. This would support strategic and learning-based aspects of the work to develop and target efforts and achievements under the auspices of the local development strategy.
In the specific recommendations for project prioritization and evaluation tools it is recommended to further develop these tools together with the LAGs and to re-establish a good working relationship between the LAGs and the Ministries, so a definite positive co-creation on the basis of LEADER and LEADER-based principles can be realized.