1. ISABEL NAYLON ESF EVALUATION PARTNERSHIP MEETING 13 NOVEMBER 2013
ESF EXPERT EVALUATION NETWORK: WOMEN AND YOUNG PEOPLE KEY FINDINGS AND ISSUES
ISABEL NAYLON
ESF EVALUATION PARTNERSHIP MEETING
13 NOVEMBER 2013

2. OVERVIEW
ESF Expert Evaluation Network is a network of evaluation experts covering all 27 Member States ( )
27 Country Reports produced around specific policy themes and target groups (Access to employment, Social inclusion, women and young people,...)
Synthesis Reports generating descriptive information, findings and issues across Member States on these key themes
Today feeding back on Women and Young People – based on 5 Country Reports for each priority group (10 Member States covered altogether) but with high level indicators for all 27 Member States
Currently working on Final Report on Main ESF achievements Outputs and results of the ESF in the programming period in all Member States

3. OVERVIEW
The target groups women and young people were identified by the network as those with the most evaluation results and also as priority groups in the targeting of the ESF in the programming period
All 27 experts were asked whether they had sufficient evaluation evidence in their Member State to warrant a country report
Women: DE, EL,ES, PL and UK
Young People: AT, CZ, FR, IT and PT
For the other Member States short reports were compiled centrally and published in a separate document
The Synthesis Report draws on both the Country Reports and the short reports

4. WOMEN: QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS
To December 2011, close to 25.5 million female final recipients of ESF across 27 Member States – including some multiple counting
Across all 27 Member States, 52.1% of all final recipients, but wide range from 38.9% in UK to 55.6% in PL. Reflects different nature of ESF interventions in different Member States
Only the Spanish country report has aggregate results for women across all OPs
888,000 job entries (61.7% of all employment results)
Strong result as women represent 56.4% of ESF expenditure and 55.5% of final recipients

5. WOMEN: INTERVENTION TYPES
Broad range of common ESF-type interventions for women
In terms of balance of ESF effort
Focussed mainly on education and training and enhancing access to employment
Less emphasis on social inclusion
Relatively little effort around tackling horizontal and vertical employment segregation
Support for access to employment, tendency for women to have
Lower job entry rates
Higher rates of job sustainability
Support for business start up
Percentage of women starting up lower than men
Percentage of sustainable business starts lower than men – EL is exception

6. WOMEN: COMMUNITY ADDED VALUE (CAV)
Limited evaluation evidence on CAV but qualitative assessments
CAV volume effects reported in 4 Member States (DE, ES, EL and PL)
CAV scope and role effects reported for EL and PL, where the focus is on gender mainstreaming
CAV process effects reported supporting improved gender mainstreaming and equal opportunity interventions
Through improved data collection and implementation around gender issues (DE, EL and PL)
Generally strengthened processes (DE and PL)

7. WOMEN: GOOD PRACTICE
Increasing female participation – some good practice examples from DE, EL and UK
Changing attitudes and awareness – good practice examples from DE, ES and PL
Underpinning gender equality – good practice examples from ES, EL and PL
Designing checklist of good practice processes – UK

8. WOMEN: EVALUATION
Key results data not always available by gender and little for specific target groups or intervention types
Only 3 counterfactual and 1 theory based evaluation specifically focussed on women

9. WOMEN: ISSUES FOR ESF
Little evidence of long run change in horizontal and vertical labour market segregation, and only limited ESF activity around changing attitudes and behaviours of employers, labour market intermediaries – and women
Much emphasis on access to employment but limited on social inclusion. Makes it difficult for socially excluded women to do well on employability pathway
Self employment tends to grow in recessions but results for ESF supported self employment poor for women – except for EL
Variations across 5 Member States around gender mainstreaming, including gender budgeting. Need in-depth comparative evaluation to assess what works best and why
Need to get better at understanding more generally which ESF funded interventions work best for women – so results data essential

10. YOUNG PEOPLE: QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS
Across all 27 Member States, over 14.5 million young people ESF final recipients, potentially some multiple counting
Across all Member States, 30% of all final recipients but within the five case studies varies from 11.1% in PT to 29.2% in CZ, 30.5% in AT, 38.7% in IT and 39% in FR (based on SFC)
No aggregate data by Member State on employment results for young people supported by ESF

11. YOUNG PEOPLE: INTERVENTION TYPES
Focus on young people within OPs across 5 case study Member States (AT, CZ, FR, IT and PT) increased since recession – but no targets set for participation levels
All 5 Member States prioritise those at risk of leaving school early and 4 prioritise those in or at risk of being in NEET group
Above prioritisation not reflected well in proactive interventions for these groups with exception of FR where high proportion of ESF going to young people targeted at NEET group
Typical interventions are work placements and support to retain and upskill those in employment
Little apparent emphasis on interventions to change employer attitudes towards recruiting young people
Some evidence that Production Schools in AT and Missions Locales and Second Chance schools in FR perform relatively well and can be scaled up and replicated

12. YOUNG PEOPLE: COMMUNITY ADDED VALUE
Again limited evaluation evidence
Significant CAV volume effects in all 5 country reports, responding to economic crisis
CAV scope effects working positively for most disadvantaged young people in AT and FR
CAV role effects where ESF funded models for working with young people able to demonstrate value and effectiveness (AT, FR and IT)
CAV process effects around development of new partnerships working with young people (AT) and improved implementation processes in beneficiary organisations (CZ)

13. YOUNG PEOPLE: GOOD PRACTICE
Working with early school leavers – good practice examples in CZ and FR
Working with employers – good practice in AT and FR
Other good practice – examples in AT, FR, IT and PT

14. YOUNG PEOPLE: EVALUATION
Only 4 impact evaluations focussed on interventions specifically designed for young people
9 impact evaluations assess impacts on young people for ESF co- financed interventions designed for wider group of final recipients
Too often evaluations focus simply on improvements needed to evidence base and not enough on how to improve ESF support for young people

15. YOUNG PEOPLE: ISSUES FOR ESF
Participation targets not set for young people in 5 Member States studied
Variation in percentage of young final recipients across Member States quite wide. Setting minimum targets would address this
Proactive measures are much less common despite growing acceptance that prevention is good long term investment
Few measures in place to change long term labour market position of young people by changing employer attitudes
Requirement for all common indicators to be broken down by gender should also apply to young people – and this particularly important in relation to information on results

16. SOME COMMON ISSUES
ESF funds need to be used to support systemic changes which are more sustainable, e.g. by changing attitudes towards employment of women and young people
Need evaluations that are stronger on identifying what works in terms of intervention types for women and young people
Going forward must have results data for priority groups such as women and young people