Evaluation support study of the costs and benefits of the implementation of LEADER

The objective of the assignment is to assess the added value of LEADER and the extent to which the increased costs of implementing the LEADER approach are justified by its additional benefits. This overall objective is broken down into the following working objectives: (i) Assess the costs incurred for the implementation and management of local development strategies (LDS) and the consistency with the actions implemented (i.e., relevance with respect to territorial needs and effectiveness of implemented projects relative to LDS objectives); (ii) Assess the additional costs of LEADER implementation through comparison with non-LEADER measures. This allows to use costs of non-LEADER measures as a baseline to examine the additional costs of LEADER; (iii) Assess the additional benefits (i.e., added value) of LEADER implementation in terms of improvements in social capital and in local governance at the local level; (iv) Assess the additional benefits of LEADER projects in terms of enhanced results compared to similar projects implemented through measures of Rural Development Programmes (RDP), i.e., not under LEADER, if comparable measures are available and eligible. The geographical scope of the analysis is the EU27 and the United Kingdom until December 2020. The analysis covers the 2014-2022 Rural Development Programming period. The evaluation support study provides answers to three Evaluation Questions (EQ): the first EQ aims to assess costs and cost drivers of LEADER and to compare LEADER and non-LEADER implementation costs. In addition, the analysis focuses on the possible effects of governance models on administrative complexities; the second EQ aims at assessing LEADER benefits in terms of improved governance and social capital; the third EQ aims at assessing the extent to which LEADER projects bring additional benefits in terms of enhanced results compared to analogous non-LEADER projects funded by RDPs. Results obtained from the analysis under the three EQs are brought together to answer the overall question “To what extent the additional costs of implementing the LEADER approach are justified by its additional benefits?”, to satisfy the main objective of the specific assignment.