The National Development Agency mandated EUROPE Ltd to perform an ex-post evaluation of the Phare-financed Roma Programmes launched since 1999.

The general objective of the evaluation was to judge:

• To what extent the 7 examined Phare projects reached their objectives;
• To what extent the results of the projects proved to be sustainable;

In addition, evaluate their ex-post impact.

The specific objectives of the evaluation were to give support to the planners of the Operational Programmes of the New Hungary Development Plan financed by ERDF/ ESF (Structural Funds):

• In designing new projects or measures;
• To improve the operational aspect of future interventions;
• To ensure the impact and visibility of the future support, and the accountability of the public funds.

Keeping to the rules of the ex-post evaluation we examined and evaluated on a sample of 200 grant projects (GP) of the 7 Phare projects:

• The relevance and the feasibility of the objectives;
• The financial efficiency of the implementation of the Phare projects related to their legal and institutional background;
• The acceptance of the grant support;
• The selection and decision-making process of the projects, the contracting procedures and their lead-times;
• The project execution and implementation on the level of the beneficiaries;
• The planned and the achieved results, we analyzed their quantitative effects, and the cause of discrepancies;
• The economic and social sustainability of the achieved results and effects;
• The indirect impacts of the projects.

The work of EUROPE Ltd was in the lime-light, as this is the first ex-post evaluation elaborated in Hungary.

In the frame of the assignment, the preparation of the evaluation report started with a one month-long data collection phase. The first stage of the data collection consisted of phone interviews.  

The experts of EUROPE Ltd talked to project leaders of grant project implementing organisations. We evaluated 203 grant projects, i.e. 56% of the grant beneficiaries. We eliminated the deficiency of missing data in the phone interviews by analyzing written project documentation and by using other interview techniques. We made 3 focus group interviews with 8-12 participants, respectively. We visited 8 grant beneficiaries and made interviews with project leaders on-site. We made 8 site visits in order to meet final beneficiaries; we made interviews and combined it with the method of field analyses. We contacted 23 professionals having work experience in the administration of Phare projects. 15 of them were available for an interview.

EUROPE Ltd developed conclusions and recommendations, which were discussed on expert forum. The result is a strong, over 200-page long material, which can be used in the programming and execution of the economic and social cohesion support, paid in the frame of the 2007-2013 Structural Funds support.

The total support to Roma programs in the period of 2007-2013 is planned for M€ 700, thus the study has an outstanding importance.