Staff Development Organisation organises Seminar on the Evaluation of Socio-Economic Programmes

As Malta prepares to join the European Union, it is essential that it develops the capacity to operate within the framework of the system of EU structural funding. It has now become vital for public officers to come to terms with new concepts of evaluation as EU development programmes are based on this system. All the public officers involved with socio-economic programmes need to understand how to apply and use evaluation tools as part of the processes and mechanisms of EU funding.

To address this concern, the Staff Development Organisation, together with the Regional Policy Directorate, is organising a seminar on the Evaluation of Socio-Economic Programmes. This seminar is being spread over two sessions. The first part is being held on the 23, 24 and 25 January, 2002 whilst the second part will be held in February, 2002. This activity is being co-financed by the European Commission.

The target audience are senior officials who are involved in the decision-making process of evaluation exercises, and programme managers who have to learn how to steer the evaluation process, mainly those who are dealing directly with issues pertaining to Chapter 21 of the Acquis, Regional Policy and the Co-ordination of Structural Funds.

The specific objectives of this seminar are:

• to develop good methodological skills in conducting evaluation exercises;
• to cultivate the capability to efficiently design, implement, monitor and evaluate programmes;
• to learn how to manage the evaluation systems in connection with EU structural funding; and
• to understand the role of ex-ante evaluation within the project and its design.

This seminar is being facilitated by Mr Kristian Colletis-Wahl, Researcher at the Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Sécurité in France. He is a member of the French Association for the Development of Economic Intelligence. Mr Colletis-Wahl has been delivering seminars on the Evaluation Methods for the past five years.