This article presents a specific analysis of programme-implementation evaluation with reference to European Social Fund (ESF) interventions. Although in recent years increasing attention has been paid to implementation processes, there is still a lack of adequate guidelines and methodologies to support this type of evaluation. Within the framework of the ESF programmes and of the Italian political-institutional context, this article analyses the main factors affecting the implementation process and considered relevant for achieving policy objectives. A case study of the Italian Objective 3 Community Support Framework process implementation evaluation is presented and the influence of three factors -actors, context and regulations -on outputs is described.
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