ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to provide a restricted framework of potential evaluation techniques applicable to large-scale regional projects (LSRPs), in this case, often ambitious cross-border or transnational endeavours. There is a difference between evaluating the specifics of a single LSRP and general trends in the regional integration process, which are themselves often stimulated by myriad projects over an extended period. LSRPs are more complex and varied than national projects, often involving a great number of actors and composed of many regional and cross-border initiatives on the ground. Regional integration processes may be brought about by several LSRPs carried out simultaneously, across various locations, involving multiple stakeholders and with competing, or even, conflicting project objectives. All such factors complicate any evaluation of direct impacts from an LSRP. Officers in regional organisations or academics, though familiar with the concept of project evaluation, need practical ways to try to ‘interpret’ how LSRPs have benefitted regional integration. However, these actors may have not been involved in the projects, but be examining them from some distance. Short-term project evaluation may already have occurred but been rather narrow and ‘myopic’, often concerned with the practicalities of project delivery, while ignoring the indirect impacts of LSRPs upon integration across a wider geographic territory. Regional integration effectively means a complex web of processes and interactions, which socialise government and business elites, media, international banks, engineers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), regional communities and other key stakeholders seeking to play a constructive role in realising LSRPs. Most institutions are obliged to undertake evaluation activities, each opting for an approach most suited to determining whether institutional goals have been met. Most private actors will merely evaluate the degree to which a project contract has been successfully carried out. Public policy actors at the supranational, national or local level may be concerned with assessing the impacts of the completed project on regional integration and how the project has helped secure broader policy goals.
