Evaluation of European Union Projects - sign of development or meaningless practice? Example of the Silesian Voivodeship

Abstract

The research and the results which are presented above certainly do not exhaust the subject of evaluation of projects financed from the EU but are a presentation centred around the reflections on the self-improvement function of evaluation practices. A few further aspects should be noted. The first major issue that definitely stands out is associated with the very small percentage of projects in which evaluation was carried out in an exemplary manner – only one in eight (12.8%) cases. Even taking into account the fact that in 43 projects (or 30%) more or less successful attempts to carry out evaluation activities (or recognised as such by the implementers) were made all the time, more than half, as many as 79, did not take into account the stage of evaluation. The reasons – or rather, the reasons given by the respondents – for this state of affairs were already mentioned above. The data indicate that the project implementers face various barriers in their evaluation. On the one hand, it is often a lack of sufficient technical knowledge and the broader financial issues, but on the other hand, there were factors such as lack of conviction about the need for evaluation research. It is worth considering this argument because it suggests that, for a large part of the implementers, feedback seems to be unnecessary – or, in a more optimistic version – the ‘cost’ of obtaining it appears to be too high in relation to its value. This puts into question the importance of the self-improvement function of evaluation, which is sometimes regarded as a kind of unnecessarily addition to the project. Optimism can be found on the part of the – admittedly small number of – individuals who coped very well with the difficult task of evaluation of the implemented projects, one effect of which was to formulate conclusions and recommendations. What is important is that the projects in which evaluation was carried out and regarded as exemplary were carried out by different units: employment offices and social welfare centres (in partnership with other institutions) and local government units. Research shows that the above-mentioned topics and the methods used by the evaluators, were also very diverse. It is finally noted that the curricula of courses ending in writing a thesis on a project, more often than not, have a requirement of creating the concept of evaluation of projects to serve the real needs of the communities to which they are addressed. Introduction of evaluation studies in humanities and social curricula is the answer to those responsible for education at university level to the needs of the national and European labour markets. By strengthening the capacity of the future of public administration staff and the third sector in the long run one is given a chance to spread and increase the level of conducting evaluation research on the implementation of projects financed from the EU funds.