Review of Rural Development Instruments: DG Agri project 2006-G4-10. Final Report

The aim of the study was to review the policy instruments under the framework of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), 2007-13, by: • reviewing intervention rationales and instruments and their use against the objectives, priorities and key actions in the EU Strategic Guidelines; • assessing whether and how RD rationales and instruments should be adapted to deliver these more effectively. The study involved 8 tasks, grouped into 3 themes of analysis: 1) the targeting of EU-27 rural development expenditure, 2000-13, including the development of databases of EU-27 rural area characteristics and ‘indicators of need’ for RD; 2) consideration of the adequacy of the current EAFRD framework, based upon an evaluation of instruments’ cost-effectiveness; the a priori development of a typology of RD interventions and catalogue of instruments; an analysis of delivery mechanisms; and assessment of instruments in ‘fiches’; 3) conclusions and recommendations. In the event, progress in finalising national and/or regional RDPs 2007-13 was delayed,over the study period. Thus, the approach was modified to incorporate more qualitative analysis and the expenditure analysis was made using incomplete figures (July 2007), so 4% of total EAFRD planned expenditure was missing

Standards of rural municipalities in the Czech Republic and comparison with rural municipalities in Austria

This study was done on the request of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoACR). The purpose of this study was to define standards for rural municipalities (municipalities) and clarify this approach for assessment of the following measures in The Rural Development Plan 2014-2020. The assessment of standards shows how the principle is more preferred if it is the principle of cohesion in the area (disparity) or competitiveness and support of successful areas

An innovative method for the evaluation of LAGs and rural development: “A mirror for LAGs”

The Leader initiative delivers a variety of innovative activities. It is a tool for rural development that is used to bring people, communities, and regions together. Experience in the European countries, including the Czech Republic, has shown that the Leader initiative has delivered visible enhancements to rural areas. This paper is based on an internal project of the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (IAEI) elaborated in the period from 2014 to 2016. The internal project dealt with the creation of a methodology with a special focus on the self-evaluation of the Local Action Groups (LAG), titled “A Mirror for LAGs”. The aim was to develop and validate a self-evaluation tool for LAGs. Cooperation with fourteen LAGs was used as the methodology of creation. The proposed procedure was tested on two LAGs. The method has two parts; an evaluation of the LAG’s strategy is undertaken as Part A, and an evaluation of the Leader principles as Part B. The evaluation of strategy (Part A) is based on the analysis of LAG activities concerning strategy. In Part A, the following elements are analysed: the basic characteristics of the LAG, the financial budget, and the way the strategy’s objectives were met. Part A is mostly based on a quantitative approach. The evaluation of the principles (Part B) is mainly based on a qualitative analysis. Part B assesses the most individual way that evaluators (LAG) conduct their work and requires a significant amount of subjective assessment. For example, very often questionnaire surveys, interviews and focus groups are needed to generate data. The evaluation of the Leader principles depends on the evaluator’s skills too

What factors affect the use of rural development subsidy funds for the period 2007-2013, Axis III and IV

The main objective of this IAEI internal research project was to assess what factors influence drawing of subsidies from the 3rd and 4th Axis Rural Development Programme in the Czech Republic over the period 2007 – 2013. We analyse factors of rural development and employ a questionnaire survey. One part concentrates on quantitative analysis and assesses available data on factors of development on the level of municipality (village), categorised by individual measures of the Rural Development Programme 2007 – 2013 in Axes 3 and 4 (from 2007 through June 2013). The other part considers selected municipalities and their successful applicants. Results of the analysis of available data showed that the statistical methods did not produce sufficient explanation of factors that affect the utilization of grant funds for measures of Axis 3 and 4. Quantitative approach is suitable for a general categorization of territorial monitor progress. For an explanation of the factors that influence the utilization of grant funds is necessary qualitative investigation, such as questionnaires. The questionnaire showed that the initial information about the project is being received almost exclusively randomly. Therefore, it is recommended to increase promotion of public awareness of rural development measures in next period (2014-2020)