Preliminary assessment of Estonian Rural Development Plan for 2014–2020

The objective of the ex-ante evaluation of the Estonian Rural Development Plan was to improve the quality, performance and efficiency of its design and implementation, taking into account the objective evaluations and recommendations of the independent evaluator and optimizing the allocation of budgetary resources.

According to the experts who participated in the ex-ante evaluation, the situation analysis presented in the draft Estonian Rural Development Plan 2014-2020 covers the most important issues and mainly justifies the choice of measures. The draft SWOT table summarizes the above analysis of the situation in a compact manner. The SWOT table is followed logically by the chapter “Needs”, which describes the main development needs by sector.

The ex-ante evaluation of the Estonian Rural Development Plan 2014-2020 was carried out by a consortium consisting of Ernst & Young Baltic AS, OÜ Hendrikson & Ko and the Baltic Research Institute, commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition, external experts from the consortium Pille Koorberg, Olav Kreen and Peeter Muiste were included in the ex-ante evaluation to provide sector-specific assessment of the RDP chapters.