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LESSONS FROM THE LESSONS FROM THE THEMATIC THEMATIC

EVALUATION OF THE EVALUATION OF THE TERRITORIAL EMPLOYMENT TERRITORIAL EMPLOYMENT

PACTSPACTS

Veronica Gaffey, DG Regional Policy,

Evaluation Unit

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Evaluation undertaken by Ecotec Research and Consulting

(November 2001 - October 2002)

Available on Inforegio:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/

INFORMATION ABOUT THE EVALUATION

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WHAT WERE THE TERRITORIAL EMPLOYMENT PACTS (TEPs)?Multi stakeholder partnerships at local level.

Objective: to tackle unemployment and promote job creation.

89 Pacts in 15 Member States between 1996 and 2001.

€300,000 Funding from Structural Funds

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ATTRIBUTES OF TERRITORIAL EMPLOYMENT PACTS

Territorial Partnerships with an employment focus:

- bottom up

- broadly based

- pursuing an integrated strategy

- innovative

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TASKS OF THE EVALUATION

Strategic Evaluation of Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs) as a policy instrument

Relevance of the Approach

Cohesion of instruments and objectives

Catalytic effects achieved

Cost effectiveness and added value

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METHOD

Documentation and monitoring data review and analysis of all 89 Pacts

National and European key informant interviews

30 Case Studies in all Member States representing the diversity of contexts

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WIDE DIVERSITY

Scale: part of municipality to whole region - 16,000 to 3 million people

Territory: sparsely populated, remote rural to world cities; high and low unemployment

Partnerships: 5 to 50+ partners; diversity of sectors

Objectives/actions: high level strategic planning to delivery of local projects

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ASSESSING RESULTS

1. Were Territorial Employment Pacts as envisaged actually created?

2. What did they achieve?

3. What factors explain the observed performance?

4. What can be concluded?

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WERE PACTS CREATED, AS FORESEEN?

Yes, up to a point: 62% (55) demonstrated at least partial conformity with the model.

Attribute Fully Partially Not No info

Bottom UpApproach

51 26 11 0

Broad basedPartnership

51 19 11 7

IntegratedStrategy

52 N/A 19 17

InnovativeApproach

66 N/A 17 5

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WHAT DID THEY ACHIEVE?

Pacts’ own view focused on partnership formation and co-operative benefits:

increased mutual trust & understanding

better resource deployment & leverage

planning, funding & delivery of local actions

increased coherence in policy

better articulation of supply and demand

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ACHIEVEMENTS 2

Direct employment effects partial & small scale, but not a primary objective of programme

Indirect employment effects difficult to isolate - best seen in:- innovative ideas & practices,- targeting of resources on agreed priorities- greater responsiveness to change- greater co-ordination

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ACHIEVEMENTS 3

Costs/benefits impossible to assess

Wide variations in “levered” funds, some achieved considerable influence, others none

Mainstreaming and wider dissemination limited

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WHAT EXPLAINS PERFORMANCE?

NOT decisive:- nature of labour market- spatial/administrative scale- human geography

Good and bad examples in all

Successful responses varied but hinged on adapting role to circumstances

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EXPLANATIONS 2

Decisive factor: governance context and the ways in which Pacts were able to interact with it

Closely associated with Member State institutional context

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Governance Context

Most positive results in “receptive” contexts, where there is an accepted and legally determined role for devolved governance powers at local level, but not systematically combined with extensive multi-stakeholder partnership working.

Italy and Ireland - particularly successful examples. Also Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany and Spain.

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Governance Context 2

In countries with a limited history of local level activity in relation to the labour market, Pacts were least successful.

Little appreciation of the merits of the bottom-up partnership and not enough competence or institutional capacity in place.

Portugal, Greece and Luxembourg

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Governance Context 3

In countries with a long history of governmental intervention in the labour market and territorial development, and where partnership working is common, Pacts struggled to find a role.

Wide variety of performance with examples of both successful and weak Pacts in same country.

Denmark, France, Netherlands, Sweden, UK

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Conclusions

Allowing for variability in context and performance, the basis Pact model has considerable potential: co-ordination of actors and

building positive relationships development of coherent and

streamlined strategy stimulation and delivery of

innovative approaches

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Conclusions 2

Value of the “ Pact model” is best achieved with a combination of: receptive space in the policy and

practice environment positive attitude from superior

authorities (good vertical links) enough bodies able and willing to be

co- ordinated and whose joint working is genuinely additional to existing

structures good internal management strategic vision to identify

opportunities for new approaches

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Conclusions 3

If these circumstances exist, the model has applicability to, for example: employment territorial development, e.g.,

competitiveness, local economic development

business support integration of education, training,

lifelong learning and skills demand

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Relevance to Future Structural Policies

For existing Objective 2 and 3 regions, where there is a tradition and capacity for partnership working, the model offers an opportunity to add value in different areas (not only employment) in the context of reduced resources.

Existing partnerships should be the starting point.

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Relevance to Future Structural Policies 2

For current Objective 1 regions without such capacity and the new Member States, the development of multi-stakeholder partnership capacity is a longer-term objective, to be stimulated through small scale pilot actions leading to longer term capacity building

In all cases, clear guidance on design, selection procedures, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination is essential