Travailler et être parents en milieu rural : un défi à l'espace et au temps (2002-2005)

Type of project/activity:

External evaluation of a French EQUAL project

Objectives:

The objective is to provide monitoring and evaluation which "accompanies" the project through its successive stages. This project is carried out under one of the priority themes of EQUAL; reconciling professional and family life Its main objective is to develop local services which respond to the needs of families in rural areas by increasing both quantitatively and qualitatively childcare. The evaluation aims to contribute to consolidating the impact of the project and establishing the conditions for dissemination and mainstreaming of the results and the solutions piloted. It also aims to assist the partners by developing self-evaluation tools which can be used by the teams in all the pilot projects carried out in three Regions and 11 Departments of France.

Background:

EQUAL is part of the European Union's strategy to create more and better jobs and to increase the access to employment for everyone. It continues the work undertaken by the Community Initiatives ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT (1994 to 1999/2000) by reinforcing the outcomes of these programmes. In the presentation of the EQUAL programme the Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs highlights certain factors of successful projects, among which are the importance of partnerships which bring together key actors, a clear project strategy accepted by all the partners, a mainstreaming objective, solid transnational cooperation and monitoring and evaluation all through the project.

Partners:

The project is managed by the Fédération Nationale Familles Rurales.

Main Activities:

Monitoring and evaluation focuses on three main aspects:

• The partnership process at national level in France. The evaluation will monitor the global implementation of the project, and how the Steering Committee carries out the work. It will also examine the effectiveness of the three thematic working groups and the links among the Steering Committee, the working groups and the pilot sites.
• Monitoring and evaluation of the measures and solutions piloted by the local centres. Three or four areas will be selected for more detailed field monitoring in order to select the indicators for a qualitative evaluation and to create self-evaluation tools which can be used by all of the pilot centres.
• The effects of the outcomes of the transnational partnership on the French project and vice versa.

Name of programme, funder or client:

The evaluation is commissioned by the Development Partnership led by Familles Rurales.

The Transnational Cooperation Partnership:

Familles Rurales is part of the transnational partnership: ACCUEIL DE L'ENFANCE. Their partners are: the Belgian project, Accueil de l'Enfance and the Luxembourg project Formation et qualification de gardiennes de jour et Modes de garde flexible.

The EIESP have been commissioned to carry out the transnational evaluation for the partnership during 2003 on the following themes:

• The process of working in a transnational partnership
• A comparison of the survey tools used by each of the projects in the diagnostic phases. The comparison will include the tools used, the type of survey, the population and the results obtained.
• The evaluation will contribute to the comparison of training and qualifications for occupations which involve working with young children in each of the partner countries with a view to making a contribution to the "professionalisation" of these occupations. This analysis will take into account recent developments in the field of APEL.

Expected outcomes, reports/documents:

Evaluation reports will be delivered to the Steering Committee of the French project and to the transnational partnership at regular intervals.