Independent Evaluation of EQUAL Projects

Reflections and proposals from an experience

Abstract

Given the specificities of the EQUAL programme as a whole and the diversity of projects funded under it (many of them different and unique, for example, in terms of methodologies and implementation processes in their respective territories), this article presents a set of theoretical-methodological considerations on the independent evaluation processes directed at the same projects. Based on an independent evaluation experience, the evaluation and elaboration method is used, seeking to incorporate and materialize a set of usual theoretical and methodological references in evaluation processes, based on the available bibliographical orientations (some of them even suggested by the EQUAL Management Office). The options for developing an evaluation system using various methodologies and techniques are described in an integrated perspective between procedures and instruments of a quantitative and qualitative nature, adjusted to the specificities of the project under evaluation, in order to provide a rigorous and useful account, for the respective Development Partnership (PD). It is the characteristics and potentialities of this device, accompanied by some empirical data by way of illustration, that are described in this article.