The European Evaluation Helpdesk for the CAP has recently published the summary report of the Good Practice Workshop on ‘Addressing data gaps to evaluate CAP Strategic Plans’.
The workshop was organised on 8-9 June 2023 in Malmö, Sweden, and aimded to identify and overcome data gaps obstructing the evaluation of CAP Strategic Plans at the national- and EU-level. The workshops’ specific objectives were to:
- Exchange practical experiences on how to ensure data availability for evaluation, including useful data sources and institutional arrangements for data provision and quality control.
- Share experience and knowledge on approaches and methods for the identification of data gaps and ways to address them.
- Provide an opportunity for networking and identification for further support (methodological, capacity building etc.) in relation to identifying and addressing data gaps.
Key messages stemming from the workshop include:
- Data gaps relate to the absence of data that would allow precise and timely measurement of change, while attribution gaps relate to the absence of data that would allow the application of more robust methods to estimate the net effects of the policy. The timely identification of data and attribution gaps depends on the development of an evaluation framework that consists of key elements to assess, evaluation questions, factors of success, indicators, data sources and methods to measure change and attribute it to interventions.
- EU Member States have a depth of knowledge and experience that they can build on to address data gaps. For instance, they have access to past data, planned data for the current period, good knowledge of eligibility conditions and regulatory requirements, and capacity to use a variety of methods relevant for CAP evaluations.
- Data gaps can be addressed in various ways, including adapting monitoring systems to new requirements, elaborating complementary studies to collect missing data (particularly relevant for environmental data, which was widely considered to be the most difficult to collect) and the development of a coherent data management approach that focuses on necessary and available information.
- EU Member States should be aware of other national and European initiatives that propose approaches for addressing data gaps, such as the use of digital farm books and other farm tools, including digital accounting (including robotic accounting) or meta-analyses and the use of numerical coefficients extracted from them.