Has rural development policyevaluation come of age?

L’évaluation de la politique dedéveloppement rural est-elleentrée dans l’âge adulte ?

Ist die Evaluation der Politik zurEntwicklung des ländlichen Raumsden Kinderschuhen entwachsen?

This Special Issue explores the

difficult issues surrounding the

evaluation of rural development (RD)

policy with contributions by

distinguished authors from the EU

and North America. It is a very

welcome sequel to Special Issue 7 (1)

which compared and contrasted

approaches to RD policies on both

sides of the Atlantic. A key contrast

was the way in which RD policy in

the EU had evolved as an element of

a multi-annual programme of

agricultural policy reform, whereas

in the US it was more community or

area based, more organic in nature

and less tied to agriculture (Blandford

and Hill, 2008). RD is clearly a

complex and somewhat contested

area of policy, posing significant

challenges for policymakers and

evaluators alike.

We are entering an era in which the

use of public funds increasingly will

be budget-constrained and where

policies should come under increased

scrutiny. This has a particular

resonance for RD policy. In the EU

there is a growing demand, especially

by the more radical reformers, that

rural policy should be driven much

more by the principle ‘public money

for public goods’. In a more budget-

constrained environment this

approach may well gain political

support and will increase the

pressures for greater transfers of the

direct farm payments in Pillar I of

the CAP into Pillar II which embodies

the wider RD goals of environment,

cohesion and agricultural

competitiveness. The recent

Declaration on CAP Reform by a

group of distinguished Agricultural

Economists may intensify pressures

(see letter on page 61).

It seems highly likely, therefore, that

the rural policy and the evaluation

communities will both need to raise

their game when it comes to the

evaluation of future RD policy

options and priorities. There will be

even greater demands to clarify

where state interventions in rural

affairs might generate the greatest

social returns or value for money.

This is particularly so in the EU

where there is a pressing need to

develop a political consensus around

the shape of rural policies for the

post-2013 programming period.

In seeking this enhanced

performance it is worth keeping in

mind both the supply and demand

sides of the RD policy evaluation

nexus. This issue of the journal

covers many of the supply side issues

associated with RD evaluation

concepts, processes and methods.

But evaluators should also keep in

mind the needs of their customers in

the policy and practice communities.

Do we always understand adequately

the nature of demand from these

groups? Arguably, this is equally

important in delivering rigorous,

relevant and influential evaluation.

The policy community, for example,

tends to be a quite rapidly changing

group with apparently little

institutional memory and sometimes

a limited appetite for rigorous

evaluation findings. This raises

formidable challenges for the

evaluation process itself and the

effective communication of results.

I am extremely grateful to our Guest

Editors, Professor David Blandford

and Professor Berkeley Hill, for their

tireless work along with the journal’s

editorial team in bringing together

the material for this special issue. It is

only through further informed and

accessible discussion and debate

amongst stakeholders – the origins of

the articles in this issue – that RD

policy evaluation can reach maturity.

Further Reading

n Bergschmidt, A. (2009). Powerlessevaluation. EuroChoices, 8(3): 41–46.

n Blandford, D. and Hill, B. (2008).Directions in rural developmentpolicy – Lessons from both sides ofthe Atlantic. EuroChoices, 7(1): 6–12.

n Davis, J. (ed.) (2008). Specialissue comparing EU and US ruraldevelopment policies. EuroChoices,7(1): pp 64.

n http://www.reformthecap.eu/posts/declaration-on-cap-reform

John Davis,

Chief Editor of EuroChoices

ƒ‘‘Sowohl die

Akteure in der Politik

zur Entwicklung

des landlichen Raums

als auch die Evaluatoren

mussen mehr

Einsatz zeigen.,,

ƒ‘‘La politique rurale

et la communaute des

evaluateurs doivent

tous deux faire monter

les enjeux.,,

ª 2010 The Author EuroChoices 9(1)ƒ 03

Journal compilation ª The Agricultural Economics Society and the European Association of Agricultural Economists 2010