EX-ANTE EVALUATION OF THE PRELIMINARY DRAFT NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2007-2013
Both the EU and Polish legislation state that the requisite condition to the effective public intervention is an initial assessment at the level of draft programming documents. Hence, Act of 20 April 2004 on the National Development Plan (Articles 57-61, OJ No 116, item 1206) provides for carrying out ex-ante evaluation (i.e. before the beginning of the implementation) of the National Development Plan.
Ex-ante evaluation aims primarily at contributing to raising and improving the final quality of the document prepared, i.e. the National Development Plan. The evaluation is to improve a constructive dialog between persons in charge of the NDP preparation and experts executing the task. In this respect ex-ante evaluation constitutes the key element enabling to understand the strategy, but also permitting to allocate financial resources (in the framework of the National Strategic Reference Framework, which will be prepared on the basis of the NDP 2007-2013 and negotiated with the European Commission), defining precisely premises and a scope of decisions taken and choices made. For these reasons ex-ante evaluation constitutes an integral part of the programming process.
It is assumed that ex-ante evaluation of the preliminary draft NDP 2007-2013 should lead to achieve specific objectives, such as for example:
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Verifying the coherence of interventions planned in the documents;
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Verifying whether the NDP is an appropriate instrument to face the challenges of the State, regions or sectors in the programming period 2007-2013;
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Assessing whether strategic axes, priorities and objectives have been properly defined within the NDP, whether they are appropriate and achievable in a given situation;
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Assessing results and the contribution to better quantification of objectives and giving foundations for monitoring and future evaluation actions.
It covers “an analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the State, a region or a sector, in particular:
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an assessment of a social and economic situation, a situation on the national labour market including job opportunities for men and women;
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an assessment of the natural environment including solutions ensuring the conformity with national and Community policies in this scope”.
Moreover, ex-ante evaluation should analyse the managemenet and monitoring system, as well as contribute to developing project selection criteria and procedures.
Ex-ante evaluation of the National Development Plan 2004-2006 and of Operational Programmes has already been carried out. The task was executed in 2002 by a group of international and Polish experts, specialised in issues concerning human resources development, equal opportunities, agriculture and rural development, fishery, transport and environment protection. The works were conducted under the supervision of the Community Support Framework Managing Authority in cooperation with the Polish-French twinning project (Phare 2001 PL0101.14 Strengthening co-ordination and management capacities for Structural Funds).
Detailed results of the evaluation have been presented in a document „Final report from ex-ante evaluation of documents submitted within Structural Funds” prepared by a group of French evaluators and in a document elaborated under guidance of the leader of the group of Polish experts. Additionally, two evaluation reports have been drawn up (separately by the international experts and the Polish ones), which relate to all Operational Programmes implemented under the NDP.
A new draft general regulation on Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund for the period 2007-2013 (Proposal for a Council Regulation laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund. COM(2004)492final, 2004/0163(AVC)) defines ex-ante evaluation, however in a less comprehensive way than it was for the programming period 2000-2006.
SUBGROUP FOR THE NDP 2007-2013 EVALUATION
In accordance with the disposition of the Chairman of the Interministerial Group for the Preparation of the NDP 2007-2013 in order to carry out ex-ante evaluation of the preliminary draft National Development Plan 2007-2013 and coordinate works connected with conducting ex-ante evaluations of preliminary draft operational programmes in January 2005 a Subgroup for evaluation of the National Development Plan 2007-2013 was established.
The Subgroup is chaired by Professor Jacek Szlachta and is composed of:
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nine independent experts, whose responsibility is to carry out partial analyses for needs of ex-ante evaluation of the preliminary draft NDP 2007-2013,
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public administration representatives – delegated by the Interministerial Group for the Preparation of the NDP 2007-2013,
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four representatives of the self-governmental administration form voivodships delegated by members of the Interministerial Group for the Preparation of the NDP 2007-2013,
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an external expert experienced in evaluation research, who supports the Subgroup in selecting a proper ex-ante evaluation methodology.
Main tasks of the Subgroup are as follows:
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Carrying out ex-ante evaluation of the preliminary draft NDP 2007-2013.
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Coordinating works relating to conducting four impact assessments of the preliminary draft NDP 2007-2013:
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environment impact assessment,
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assessment of an anticipated macroeconomic effect of the NDP implementation,
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assessment of an anticipated NDP impact on the labour market, including job opportunities for women and men,
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assessment of an anticipated NDP impact on the competitiveness of the economy, including the innovativeness of enterprises.
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Coordinating works connected with conducting ex-ante evaluation of preliminary draft operational programmes in the framework of the NDP 2007-2013 (through drawing up common assumptions for these evaluations).
It was agreed that the Subgroup would meet on a regular basis. In February and March the Subgroup met every two weeks at the same time (on Wednesday, time: 11.00-14.00) and since the beginning of April – on a weekly basis. The National Evaluation Unit serves as the Subgroup Secretariat.
The methodology for ex-ante evaluation of the NDP 2007-2013 has already been elaborated on, contractors for preparing partial analyses (foreseen for needs of the NDP 2007-2013 ex-ante evaluation), as well as the scope and the method for conducting these analyses have been agreed on. You may find the analyses that have already been completed down on this page in “Documents”.
The Subgroup’s works cover also drawing up guidelines on the scope and the method for carrying out ex-ante evaluations of draft regional and sectoral operational programmes implemented in the framework of the NDP 2007-2013. The Guidelines are planned to be adopted by the Subgroup for the NDP 2007-2013 Evaluation at the end of May 2005. All analyses that have been prepared, will contribute to preparing a final report from ex-ante evaluation of the preliminary draft NDP 2007-2013. Once the report is adopted the results of the evaluation will be presented in public on conferences devoted to consultations of the NDP 2007-2013.
The activity of the Subgroup for the NDP 2007-2013 Evaluation, expertises and analyses prepared within its works are co-financed within the Technical Assistance Operational Programme, except for the HERMIN model.
DOCUMENTS
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