Die Gemeinsame Deutsche Arbeitsschutzstrategie – ein Erfolg?

The evaluation of the first period (2008 to 2012) of the Joint German Occupational Safety and Health Strategy (‘GDA’) has been completed; the final report was published in June 2014. The overall assessment is positive: The public occupational health and safety authorities and the social accident insurance institutions improved their co-operation, and a range of the self-set strategic goals were achieved. The evaluators also identified weaknesses in initializing procedures. The broad variety of procedures and different methodological approaches in the joint fields of action and the eleven work programmes (‘Arbeitsprogramme’) made it difficult to harmonize the overall assessment of the impact of the strategy. Targeted effects at national level – i.e. reduction of workplace accidents, less absence due to musculoskeletal disorders – were either not fully achieved or the impact of the strategy was not verifiable. For future evaluations of the GDA the evaluators recommend a cautious modification of the newly developed evaluation tools, the use of more impact indicators and additional studies dealing with the context factors. This might enhance the ability of future evaluations to measure and assess the impacts of the strategy with greater precision.