Investment support under rural development policy : executive summary

The objective of this evaluation is to review, analyse and test different methods for evaluating investment support measures in Rural Development Programmes (RDP). The selected methods were used to analyse investment support measures in eleven Member States. Results of this evaluation focused firstly, on assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches and identifying types of results to be obtained by six different methods. Secondly, the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of investment support measures were explored by applying these methods in the case study territories. Finally, the results of the case studies were used to assess to what extent the different approaches to targeting investment support have been effective in meeting the general objectives of rural development policies.