Application of a Comprehensive Methodology for the Evaluation of Social Innovations in Rural Communities

Despite the growing interest in social innovation (SI) in agriculture, the literature lacks validated tools for evaluating such initiatives. This paper provides an empirical application of the evaluation approach developed within the H2020 SIMRA project to a pilot experience conducted in a rural are...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSustainability Vol. 13; no. 4; p. 1807
Main Authors Baselice, Antonio, Prosperi, Maurizio, Marini Govigli, Valentino, Lopolito, Antonio
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 07.02.2021
Subjects
Agriculture
Case studies
Civil society
Community
Consortia
Data collection
Evaluation
Farmers
Farms
Indicators
Initiatives
Innovations
Population decline
Professional relationships
Quality of life
Rural areas
Rural communities
Rural development
Social innovation
Sustainability
Italy
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Summary:Despite the growing interest in social innovation (SI) in agriculture, the literature lacks validated tools for evaluating such initiatives. This paper provides an empirical application of the evaluation approach developed within the H2020 SIMRA project to a pilot experience conducted in a rural area of Southern Italy. The value added by this case study is the application of the five types of criteria used by the OECD for the evaluation of development programs, which are commonly referred to as REEIS: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. This experiment demonstrates the adequacy of the evaluation framework in identifying strengths and weaknesses of the initiative, according to a multifaceted perspective. The overall evaluation proves that most indicators fall under the high (48%) and medium categories (36%), and only few indicators are low (16%). The usefulness of the evaluation results is manifold. First, this evaluation highlights relevant arguments to support the communication strategy addressed at civil society, therefore reinforcing the civic engagement of the initiative, which is the distinctive feature of SI. Second, it supports project managers in addressing interventions to face emerging weaknesses. Finally, the evaluation provides factual evidence to policy makers to perform cost-effective analysis of rural development policies.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su13041807