An opportunity to strengthen institutional capacity in the field of monitoring and evaluation of strategic documents

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, as a national project partner in the Facility Point project, organized on 4-5 November 2021 in Terme Jezerčica, Croatia,  a workshop in order to strengthen institutional capacities in monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the EU Macro-regional Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR). The workshop was led by experts from the Institute for Development and International Relations IRMO from Zagreb, engaged through a public procurement procedure for the provision of services in this area. The workshop was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Croatia and representatives of five other Croatian ministries important for EUSAIR implementation: Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Ministry of Culture and Media and Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development. The workshop was also used as an opportunity to exchange information and discuss the progress and challenges of implementing the activities of each of the four thematic pillars of EUSAIR - Blue Growth, Connecting the Region, Environmental Quality and Sustainable Tourism.

The workshop covered following topics, with the presentation of practical examples and active participation of the participants: evaluation within the EU Cohesion Policy and what the European Commission requires in this area, importance, basic principles and types of evaluation, criteria and evaluation questions, five most commonly used indicators in evaluations, the main challenges of evaluations and recommendations to future evaluators. IRMO experts, in addition to holding workshops to building and/or strengthen institutional capacity in the field of monitoring and evaluation of the EUSAIR (Activity 3), are engaged by the same contract to develop a knowledge base for the entire Adriatic-Ionian region (Activity 1) and  to establish a framework for EUSAIR monitoring and evaluating (Activity 2).

Evaluation is an extremely important and powerful tool that supports effective management and decision making. Contributes responsibility for the use of resources and the achievement of results. The workshop came at the right time and gave its contribution to the strengthening of institutional capacities, better knowledge and use of the evaluation tool not only in the implementation of EUSAIR but also in the preparation and implementation of strategic documents and national operational programs for the new 2021-2027 financial perspective.

You are kindly invited to take a look below and share your thoughts on the topics discussed.