The ex ante evaluation of the Northern Periphery Programme, 2007-2013: report to the NPP Managing Authority, Sweden

The aim of the ex ante evaluation was to provide an external perspective on the preparation of the new Programme with a view to improving and strengthening the final quality of the Programme and optimising the allocation of resources. The objectives were: to appraise the socio-economic analysis and the relevance of the strategy to the needs identified; to evaluate the rationale of the strategy and its consistency; to appraise the internal and external coherence of the strategy; to evaluate the expected results and impacts; and to appraise the proposed implementation system. The evaluation has been undertaken, as recommended by DG REGIO, through ‘an iterative and interactive process’. This involved facilitating a constructive dialogue between the drafting teams and the evaluation experts, whereby the EPRC evaluation team used judgement and provided recommendations on the content of the various elements of the Programme as they were drafted.