News

22.03.2009

Morten Kvistgaard did on the 20th of March 2009 participate in the Monitoring Committee meeting of the Danish Rural Development Programme 2007 - 2013 in the Copenhagen domicile of the Danish Food Industry Agency. At the meeting Morten Kvistgaard did present the results of the ex post evaluation of the Rural Development Programme 2000 - 2006. The evaluation was accomplished in the period from August to December 2008 of a consortium of Orbicon A/S and Capacent A/S with Morten Kvistgaard, Evaluators.EU, as team leader. The English executive summary of the evaluation is available here as a pdf file.

29.01.2009

Evaluators.EU makes an agreement with the secretariat of the Nordic Council of Ministers regarding an evaluation of the Nordic programme "New Nordic Cuisine" (Ny Nordisk Mad). The programme was initiated in 2007 with the overall objective of facilitating a new common Nordic platform for the development of the Nordic Cuisine based on nordic raw materials and the common Nordic principles in production and processing: food safety, purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics. The evaluation will provide input to the Councils of Mministers meeting in Island in July 2009 and contribute to the discussions of a possible prolongation of the programme. For further information contact Morten Kvistgaard (mkv@evaluators.eu), Magnus Gröntoft (mg@norden.org) or Mads Wolff (mrw@norden.org). Visit also the website of New Nordic Cuisine: www.nynordiskmad.org/en

23.01.2009

Evaluators.eu signs contract with the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS)  regarding an external assessment of the Baltic 21 Action Programme Baltic 21 was initiated in 1996 and endorsed of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Baltic Sea states in 1998. The overall objectives of Baltic 21 are to contribute and advance the sustainable development of the Baltic Sea region. More specifically the overall objectives should be fulfilled through coordination of (national and regional) goals and activities throughout the region, and through the set-up of a forum for cooperation across borders as well as across various stakeholder groups.

The objectives of the external evaluation are to

Provide input to the dialogue about the strategic direction of the future work of Baltic 21, including future priorities of actions;

Provide recommendations to an improved institutional set-up of Baltic 21, including recommendations to the content and organization of the relationship to CBSS and other inter-governmental bodies in the region.

More specifically the external evaluation will include the following 5 topics:

An assessment of the activities, the motivations and expectations of members attending Baltic 21 activities

 An assessment of the overall successes and shortcomings of Baltic 21 in relation to the Action Programme and the Strategy Guidelines

An assessment of the relevance and role of the Baltic 21 for sustainable development, in particularly the relationship to CBSS.

An assessment of the key strategic areas of Baltic 21 and working models for future cooperation

An assessment of the relevance and performance of the organizational set-up

For further information contact Morten Kvistgaard (mkv@evaluators.eu), head of the Baltic 21 secretariat Ms. Mia Crawford (mia.crawford@cbss.org) or the chair of the Senior Officials Group Mr. Carl Bjørn Rasmussen (cbr@mst.dk)

07.01.2009

Evaluators.EU signs a contract with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding a scoping mission to the Republic of Moldova. The overall objective of the assignment is to assess the possible content of a Danish support programme to Moldova focusing on the development to Small and Medium sized Enterprises. The scoping mission will map other interventions in the country from multinational and national donors and organisations, in particularly EU, WB and USAID in order to find room for a specialized Danish support scheme. For further information, please contact Morten Kvistgaard (mkv@evaluators.eu) or head of section Niels Hedegaard Jørgensen, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (niejor@um.dk).

31.12.2008

Evaluators.eu wishes all friends, colleagues and partners a Happy New Year 2009 looking forward to new and interesting assignments

31.12.2008

Evaluators.EU participates together with a consortium led by ADE (Belgium) and with Agrotec (Italy) and ADAS (UK) in the evaluation of the implementation of the Farm Advisory System for the European Commission (DG Agri). The purpose of the contract is to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of the Farm Advisory system with respect to achieving the objectives laid down in EC Regulation 1782/2003. The evaluation covers all 27 member states, and Evaluators.EU is responsible for Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Slovakia. For further information, please contact Morten Kvistgaard (mkv@evaluators.eu) or project leader Monica Beck   (Monica.Beck@ade.eu).

11.08.08
Evaluators.EU participates together with our partners Orbicon (contact Claus Goldberg on CG@orbicon.dk) and Capacent Epinion (contact Heidi.Skov.Andersen@capacent.dk) in the ex post evaluation of the Danish Rural Development Programme 2000 – 2006 for the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries. Morten Kvistgaard will be team leader on the evaluation running from August until November 2008.

10.07.08
Morten Kvistgaard did participate as a key speaker in a seminar arranged of DG Enlargement and DG Agri on 7^th and 8^th July in Brussels. The theme of the seminar was “Monitoring and Evaluation of IPARD programmes”, and the participants were representatives from agricultural ministries in Croatia, Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. The presentation of Morten Kvistgaard was entitled “Evaluation questions, criteria and indicators – How to do it” and did include examples from measures under each of the three IPARD programmes: Improvement of Agricultural Holdings (Turkey), Processing and Marketing (Republic of Macedonia) and Diversification of economic activities (Croatia).

07.05.08
Morten Kvistgaard is contracted as evaluation expert to assist the European Policy Evaluation Consortium (EPEC) in the evaluation of the communication activities included in the LIFE programme for the period from 2000 to 2007. Morten Kvistgaard will participate in evaluation design and approaches as well as in analyses of collected data. The evaluation will be implemented from February to July 2008.

31.03.2008
Evaluators.EU is contracted of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI), Republic of Moldova. The main objective of the assignment is to assist MAFI develop a Rural and Agricultural Service (RAS) vision and strategy for the Government, based on international best practices in this field and taking into account the specifics of Moldova. On this basis, specific proposals will be made for the design of a medium to long term strategy and policy of extension services in Moldova and the corresponding legal framework for this activity.
The specific objectives are twofold:

·         Definition of a strategy, policy and legal framework for the development of publicly funded RAS in Moldova,

·         Assistance to MAFI RAS Unit and strengthening of its capacity for RAS external Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)

The assignment is launched with a kick-off mission from 31^st March to 4^th April 2008 and will last until June 2010.

28.03.2008
Evaluators.EU signs contract with the French Italian consortium Agrosynergie. The consortium has been selected of the European Commission DG Agri to accomplish the evaluation of measures regarding producer organisations (POs) in the fruit and vegetables sector. The aim of the evaluation is to prepare an overview of the effects in the 27 members States of the F&V CMO (in particularly the part concerning Producer Organisations). It is an ex-post evaluation of the CMO. The CMO was established in 1962 and reformed in 1996 since when it was ruled by regulation (EC) n°2200/1996 up to the last reform. The main characteristic of the CMO is to have POs at the centre of the scheme ensuring its decentralized management. In 2000 and 2007 the CMO was reformed twice. In 2007, the F&V sector was introduced in the single payment scheme.
In this evaluation, the measures analyzed are the one presented in the articles 11 to 16 and 18 of the (CE) n°2200/1996 (and their application regulations): recognition and preliminary recognition, operational funds and other support to POs, operational programs and extension of the rules. The evaluation aims at evaluating the efficiency, effectiveness and relevance of each measure. Evaluators.EU will prepare country studies for Denmark and Sweden.

14.03.2008

Morten Kvistgaard will present the results from a user satisfaction survey among students and young candidates from the Centre for Forest and Landscape Research at the Life Faculty, University of Copenhagen. The presentation will take place at the meeting of the board of directors of the Centre.

13.03.2008
Morten Kvistgaard will participate in a meeting of the Council of Ministers Executive Committee on Fisheries, Agriculture, Food and Forestry Cooperation in Stockholm, Sweden hosted of the Swedish Ministry of Agriculture. Morten Kvistgaard will present the findings and recommendations from his evaluation of the Nordic Fisheries, Agriculture, Food and Forestry Cooperation 2005-2008 and Strategy of Genetic Resources 2005-2008. The meeting will discuss the implications of the evaluation for the preparation of the new action programme for the sectors for the period 2009-2012.

18.02.2008
Morten Kvistgaard signs contract with Vakakis International S.A (Greece, www.vakakis.gr) regarding the ex ante evaluation of the National Rural Development Plan (NRDP) for the Republic of Serbia (RoS).
Vakakis International has over the last two years implemented a European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) funded project supporting the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management (MAFWM) with the preparation of the NRDP and the organisation of a Paying Agency after EU standards.
The ex ante evaluation will be accomplished in Belgrade from 18^th of February to 5^th of March 2008.
The assignment is implemented in cooperation with Manager Heidi Skov Andersen, Capacent Epinion, and represents the first common project between Capacent Epinion and Evaluators.EU in accordance with the newly signed agreement of cooperation between the two firms, see the News 21.01.2008.

21.01.2008
Evaluators.EU signs a Letter of Intent with Capacent Epinion concerning cooperation. See www.Capacent.dk and www.Epinion.dk. The Letter of Intent makes it possible for Evaluators.EU to take advantage of the survey and data collection facilities of Capacent Epinion and of complementary competences in tenders and in acquisitions within sectors of mutual interest.
For further information contact manager Heidi Skov Andersen on heid.skov.andersen@capacent.dk.
The LoI supplements a similar LoI between Orbicon A/S (www.Orbicon.dk) and Evaluators.EU primarily within Nature and Environment. For further information contact Head of Department Per Møller Jensen on pmj@orbicon.dk.

28.11.2007
From 28th of November to 4th of December Morten Kvistgaard will be on a mission to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food in Norway and Ministry of Agriculture in Sweden as part of the evaluation of the Action Programme for Nordic Cooperation within the Fisheries, Agriculture, Food and Forestry sectors.

12.11.2007
Morten Kvistgaard is contracted to assist the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Romania with the finalization of the National Rural Development Plan (NRDP) 2007-2013. His assistance will focus on lessons learned from the implementation of the SAPARD programme as well as from other EU programmes implemented in Romania in the period of accession. The assistance will take place from 12^th to 16^th November 2007 inBucharest. See References, Romania for related previous assignments in Romania.

22.10.2007
Together with the Cogea (IT) and Oreade Breche (FR), Evaluators.EU participates in an evaluation of the activation of direct payments on fruit and vegetables land in the regional model. Evaluators.EU is responsible for a case study in Denmark based on desk research and interviews with central stakeholders (ministry departments, industry and farmers organisations as well as advisory and research services). It is the ambitions of the DG Agri that the evaluation shall aim at explaining to the public the principles of the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The evaluation will be implemented in the period from November 2007 to March 2008.

17.10.2007
Evaluators.EU signs contract with the Nordic Councils of Ministers. The contract contains an evaluation of the 2005-2008 Action Plan for Development of Fisheries, Agriculture, Food and Forestry in the Nordic countries as well as an evaluation of the Nordic Strategy for Genetic Resources. The assignment will be implemented from October 17th to December 21st 2007.