Measurement and Evaluation of the Contribution of Cohesion Policy to the National Sustainable Development Strategy

The United Nations 2030 Agenda requires the definition of policy coordination systems, at national and territorial level, to design and implement coherent and integrated policies, outlining objectives, indicators and processes for their evaluation and monitoring. In Italy, the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) provides the strategic framework for public policy planning, programming and evaluation. In this direction, considerable progress has been made in promoting shared metrics and methods to assess the contribution of policies to the achievement of the Strategy’s objectives and targets. This paper examines the integrated system of tools and methodological approaches developed during the preparation of Cohesion Policy National and Regional Programmes 2021-2027 to measure and assess their potential economic, social and environmental impacts – synergies and trade-offs – on the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, an ad hoc methodology for assessing the effects of different sectors of intervention on the achievement of NSDS strategic objectives is explored. An approach that has the advantage of being flexible, easy to interpret, and adaptable to other policies, both at national and regionallevel, to support well-informed public choices. In times of rapid change, increasing uncertainty and complexity, indications emerge from this paper for the design of policy evaluation activities, whether financed by national resources or European funds, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, through a multidisciplinary approach capable of taking into account the interdependencies between the various dimensions of sustainability, so as to anticipate risks and seize future opportunities.