General programme "Fundamental Rights and Justice": specific programme "Fight against violence" - Daphne III Programme 2007-2013

This report on the interim evaluation of the Daphne III programme aims at providing an insight into the results achieved so far by the programme and the qualitative and quantitative aspects of its implementation. The obligation to submit this evaluation to the European Parliament and the Council is expressed in Article 15 of the legal base of the Daphne III programme.

The evaluation of the programme focused on the results obtained so far by the programme and the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the implementation of Daphne III. More specifically, the evaluation of the programme assessed the relevance in terms of the programme's objectives and approach, the effectiveness of the programme (the extent to which the programme is successful in achieving its objectives) and the efficiency of the programme (the extent to which the Commission and the funded organisations have made the best use of resources – financial, human, technical – to implement the programme).

This report highlights the main results of the evaluation, the conclusions and the recommendations for the remaining period of the programme’s implementation.

Implementation of the Daphne Programme: the report recalls that the total financial envelope foreseen for the Daphne III programme is € 116.85 million for the period 2007-2013. The budget of the Daphne III programme allows funding of an average of 41 Action Grants and 10 Operating Grants per year with the average amount of EU grant of € 362,000 and € 175,000 respectively.

The evaluation concludes that overall the Daphne III programme is highly relevant to the problems it was designed to address. Actions funded through Daphne III are contributing to the prevention of violence against the target groups, to the exchange of best practices between the Member States, and to policy developments at EU and national level. However, a number of procedural and substantive challenges have been identified which affect progress. The impact of some projects remains questionable because they seem to lack innovation in their approach and the actions proposed, and are highly repetitive. Many applicants tend to concentrate too much on the presentation of the project rather than on the question whether the action would bring any changes to the problem of violence. This approach is further strengthened by the Commission's lack of reliable indicators to measure the impact of any project. The evidence suggests that more could be done to promote new partnerships and to ensure that there is a reasonable geographic spread of lead organisations as the participation of organisations from some countries remains limited. This is especially the case for Member States that joined in 2004 and 2007.

As regards the efficiency of the programme, the report indicates that the financial resources currently provided by the programme to implement actions are appropriate in that they allow high quality projects to be funded and at the same time the ratio of success in project selection ensures the significant competition among projects. On the whole, the report suggests that the funding of fewer but large-scale projects could be more efficient, provide better value for money and bring results with a significant impact.

Recommendations: in response to challenges and issues identified during the programme evaluation, the Commission plans to implement the following measures in order to strengthen the impact of the programme and improve its implementation:

1. improved focus on EU policy priorities: although the general and specific priorities of the programme remain relevant and the programme is very responsive to new developments through the adoption of annual priorities, the evaluation suggests that the Daphne III programme risks moving away from its main focus and target groups and in this respect could risk causing overlap with other EU programmes. The programme could also do more to achieve stronger links with current policy developments. The Commission will continue to steer Daphne III through the adoption of annual priorities, but it will focus on a short list of priorities of particular importance. In this respect, the annual priorities will make the programme both flexible and responsive to evolving problems and needs. To achieve stronger impact, the Commission will also consider adjusting the scale of funded projects, thus financing those that bring an important EU added value and produce widely disseminated outputs. More focused annual priorities will also allow avoiding any possible overlaps with other sources of funding available. At the same time the Commission will still leave a possibility to finance new and innovative projects outside the annual priorities. The programme should remain open to new ideas on how to combat and prevent violence against women, children and young people and the organisations applying for funding should have an opportunity to develop and present innovative projects. The number of projects funded outside priorities will nevertheless remain limited to ensure focus on annual priorities;

2. better dissemination and sustainability of project results: the Commission will take measures to strengthen the impact of projects and their sustainability. First of all, the Commission will further focus the evaluation of projects and the design of the calls on the results and the outputs of the funded actions. This result-oriented approach will ensure that the available funds will be spent only on projects which really contribute to the objectives of Daphne and bring an important added value. Secondly, funding fewer but bigger projects could also be a solution to improve sustainability as generally bigger actions have better chances of being properly disseminated. The Commission will also further raise the profile of the "Daphne brand" which, as mentioned on many occasions by the grant beneficiaries, gives the projects an important credibility contributing towards better impact and sustainability. Lastly, the Commission will make use of some other tools to improve the availability of information about the Daphne funded projects;

3. balanced participation in the Daphne programme: participation in the Daphne programme is not equal among Member States. The Commission will step up efforts to raise the profile of Daphne in countries where the participation of organisations is lower than the average. This could include a targeted information campaign consisting of information meetings and distribution of Daphne booklets. Possibilities of cooperation with national and regional authorities to disseminate information on the programme will also be explored. To this end, the Commission could involve more Member States in the Daphne Programme Committee to disseminate relevant information to civil society organisations in the Member States;

4. more efficient management of the Daphne programme: some measures have already been taken to improve the application process. These are the introduction of the electronic system of application (PRIAMOS). The Commission will take further measures to reduce the time between the publication of the calls and the conclusion of contracts, especially for Operating Grants which are awarded only for a given budgetary year. It has to be also noted that the large number of grants awarded and, consequently, the number of final evaluations and the extent of support requested by the grant beneficiaries create a constantly increasing workload. In order to improve the efficiency of the management of Daphne, the Commission would identify solutions to achieve economies of scale, improving at the same time the impact of projects funded under the Daphne III programme.

Conclusions: in order to improve the reach and impact of the programme the Commission will strengthen the links of the programme with policy developments, ensure balanced participation and improve the dissemination of the results of the projects and the management of the selection process. Lessons learned during this evaluation will be integrated into the reflection and preparatory work for the next multiannual financial framework.