Deriving collaborative aims and outcomes: A case-study of cross-border cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This article draws on a study of cross-border cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe to examine the ways in which common aims are derived in collaborative ventures. It identifies that a lack of clarity can emerge as aims can be variously derived, belong to a single agency or be owned by individual actors. Aims may also be externally imposed by funding bodies. Aims can be explicit and thus open to evaluation or either assumed or hidden, neither of which are likely to be subject to formal monitoring. The process of deriving outcomes and the impact of the nature of funding (to programmes rather than to collaborative partnerships) are discussed. I argue that there is a need to know what success might look like, something at odds with the ex post nature of much evaluation. The problems of evaluating collaboration are made more complex by the intangible nature of some of the outcomes such as learning, connections and capacity.