The Evaluation of European Social Fund Programmes in a New Framework of Multilevel Governance: The Italian Experience

Lion C., Martini P. and Volpi S. (2004) The evaluation of European Social Fund programmes in a new framework of multilevel governance: the Italian experience, Reg. Studies 38, 207-212. The aim of the paper is to outline the Italian experience in the evaluation of programmes co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) over the 2000-2006 period. The key focus is to see if, and how, evaluation procedures in Italy have changed in the context of the recently created multilevel governance scenario. The analysis suggests that approaches to evaluation have been influenced by multilevel governance in three areas: the general approach to ESF evaluation; the organization of monitoring systems; and the launch of evaluation activities.