ESRI and DRCD publish a “Review of International Approaches to Evaluating Rural and Community Development Investment and Supports
From Department of Rural and Community Development
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Rural and Community Development
Published on
Last updated on
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) today published the first output of a joint Research Agreement between the two organisations.
The study assesses international approaches to evaluating the impact of Government investment and supports in rural and community development. This research builds on existing work of the Department to date, and has been undertaken in the context of increasing public investment in rural and community development in recent years.
Key findings from the report are:
Secretary General of DRCD, Kevin McCarthy, said:
“I am delighted to see the publication of this report. The report highlights the important investment and supports being delivered by the Department for our communities. The research conducted under our agreement with the ESRI will enable us to better understand the impact of the work of the Department and inform policy development.”
Director of the ESRI, Alan Barrett, said:
“It is a core principle of sound public finance management that expenditures should be evaluated to ensure that objectives are being met and that value for money is being obtained. However, it is widely recognised that such evaluation is methodologically difficult in the areas of rural and community development due in part to the multiplicity of objectives and the dispersed nature of the funding. The Department of Rural and Community Development deserves great credit for partnering with the ESRI and for asking the Institute to explore ways of bringing evaluation techniques to DRCD programmes.”
The report is available: here.
DRCD’s mission is to promote rural and community development and to support vibrant, inclusive and sustainable communities throughout Ireland.
The mission of the ESRI is to produce research that informs policymaking in Ireland. A number of Government Departments fund programmes of research with the ESRI which serves to improve understanding of broad areas of topic for general public benefit. The outputs of the research programme are published.
Under this Research Agreement the ESRI conducts research to (i) support the monitoring and development of rural and community policy; (ii) help develop a framework for monitoring and evaluation of rural and community development programmes; and (iii) produce bespoke outputs which help to inform Department policy areas, and contribute to the analysis of specific programmes and projects funded by the Department.