Purpose
The purpose of this deliverable is to present the results of IMPACT Europe, covering findings, lessons learned and recommendations produced by the project. These include, but are not limited to, the project evaluation toolkit. This programme and its toolkit provide a robust foundation for evaluating programmes and interventions for preventing and countering violent extremism (CVE). The project toolkit aims to be comprehensible and useful for all potentially interested practitioners (e.g. multi-level end-users, first-line practitioners, policymakers and other decision makers). A key task under WP6 was that of assessing the adaptability of the toolkit, i.e. how the toolkit would perform in changing future environments, such as new and evolving threats, new legal frameworks, and a continuing digitalisation of society (e.g. increasing use of online activity by actors in the field). This deliverable provides a set of recommendations for further developing and implementing the innovative evaluation toolkit.
Methods
An interdisciplinary team produced this deliver able, which provides a synthesis and overview of a variety of research activities. First, the project team reflected on the results of the toolkit’s pilot programme and ways of enhancing the toolkit, as well as the accompanying manual and training course. In parallel, the research team also evaluated the toolkit’s adaptability in a changing environment. Finally the team delivered the present report discussing lessons learned, findings and recommendations for future work.
Results
We found the IMPACT Europe toolkit to be a robust and quasi-standardised set of tools for measuring effectiveness, broadly defining and evaluating programmes and interventions. The toolkit has the potential to help a variety of end-users with differing needs, ranging from policymakers to first-line practitioners. It has the potential to remain valid in the medium term, although some improvements might be made and unexplored theoretical fields and practices taken into account in future through a similarly robust protocol.
Conclusions
IMPACT Europe and its toolkit facilitate the se lection and implementation of evidence-based response measures, with the goal of eventually contributing to the design of better, more focused policy programmes and interventions. Stakeholders may find useful information on identifying good or promising practices in tackling violent extremism in IMPACT Europe. It may also enable, to a significant extent, the management of knowledge that is necessary for building an evidence base.
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