EVALUATION UNIT at the OECD LEED Trento Centre for Local Development

CFE/LEED Outreach activities through its Trento Centre LITHUANIA LATVIA ESTONIA TRENTO Trento Centre mission Contribute to local development capacity building in Central and Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe with reference to: Entrepreneurship and job creation Local governance Social cohesion Evaluation Facilitate the exchange of experience between OECD member and non-member countries Strengthen the relationship between policy makers, local development practitioners and the scientific community in OECD member and non member countries Reinforce representative democracy at sub-national level by initiating and supporting a dialogue between national and sub-national legislatures on local development issues

Evaluation Unit at the Trento Centre The Evaluation Unit has been set up in 2005 to promote and assist in improvement of the local development evaluation practice in the Target region Two expert staff are responsible for the Evaluation Unit programme of work and the activities are largely supported by the Trento Centre as well as LEED technical staff The first year of activities has been accepted through out the target region with vivid interest and positive response from the local development actors confirming that the objectives of the Evaluation Unit are meeting actual needs and challenges faced in the are of local development in CEE and SEE countries The Programme of work for 2006 has been positively accepted by the Directing Committee of the LEED Programme at its ?? Session in Prague

Objectives of the Evaluation Unit Promote more and better quality evaluation of local development strategies Assess the state of local development evaluation in CEE and SEE countries, identify the main obstacles and provide remedies Promote a culture of evaluation Identify, and disseminate best practice local development evaluations Establish and develop a network in the target countries bringing together policy makers, experts and practitioner both among individual target countries as well as between the target regions and other OECD member countries.

Activities of the Evaluation Unit Events, Seminars Expert Group Identify the current needs and obstacles faced when aiming at more and better quality evaluation of local development in the Target region. Networking Field work, Country visits, Projects’ implementation