Building Beneficiary Capacity under EU Cohesion Policy

Annex A. Project background and methodology

The Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) of the European Commission supports European Union (EU) Member States in their efforts to strengthen their administrative capacity. In this framework, Unit E1 – Capacity Centre Administrative Capacity Building, Solidarity Fund – approached the OECD to provide technical support for the pilot project “Supporting managing authorities to build the capacity of Cohesion Policy funds beneficiaries”.

Between 1 June and 7 August 2023, the European Commission launched a call for expression of interest for the pilot project and selected six managing authorities: the Managing Authority of Corsica ERDF-ESF+ Regional Programme in France; Managing Authority of Emilia-Romagna ERDF Regional Programme in Italy; Managing Authority of Programme Technical Assistance for European Funds in Poland; Managing Authority of Programme Sustentável 2030 in Portugal; Managing Authority of North-East Regional Programme in Romania; and Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat of Danube Region Programme.

The pilot project was conducted between January 2024 and June 2025. Table A.1 describes the activities conducted as part of the pilot project.

Table A.1. Project timeline

Activity	Time	Description
Kick-off meeting	31 January 2024	The project team of each pilot managing authority, DG REGIO and the OECD participated in the meeting.
Questionnaire for pilot managing authorities and background document collection	February-March 2024	The questionnaire, designed by the OECD, collected information about the programme beneficiaries and the internal organisation structure of the managing authorities related to beneficiary capacity building, as well as the managing authority’s perceived challenges and priorities in beneficiary capacity building. Typical documentation collected included the organisational chart of the managing authority; a description of programme implementation procedures, strategies and plans: and the evaluation report related to beneficiaries, when applicable.
Beneficiary survey development	March-June 2024	The draft survey template in English was developed by the OECD and revised based on feedback from all pilot managing authorities. It was translated by the respective managing authorities into the local language for each programme. The translated survey was then transformed by the OECD into an online survey using the Lime Survey platform. Each survey was tested by the respective managing authority team before launching. Annex 1.A provides detailed information on the survey.
Beneficiary surveys launched and response period	June-October 2024	The surveys were launched. The respective managing authorities used emails, websites, social media and other channels to disseminate the survey to their beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries.
Online focus group interviews	May-July 2024	For each pilot programme, the OECD conducted online interviews, with an average 40 stakeholders per programme. The interviewees typically included managing authority staff, beneficiaries, consultants working with beneficiaries, national co-ordination body representatives (where applicable) and other actors working with beneficiaries, such as local government associations and business support organisations.
In-person focus group interviews and multi-stakeholder workshops	June-September 2024	The OECD conducted in-person missions to each programme. The missions were structured around one day of in-person interviews with key stakeholders to deepen the discussions based on previous online meetings, and one day dedicated to a multi-stakeholder workshop where all the interviewed stakeholders (whether online and in-person) were invited. Facilitated by the OECD and the managing authority project team, participants at the workshop discussed common challenges in beneficiary capacity building and explored concrete solutions. The outcomes of the discussion were captured by the managing authority project team and the OECD, and served as inputs for the action plans. The OECD analytical framework was applied to structure the discussions at the workshop.
Development of action plans	October 2024-April 2025	The OECD developed the draft action plan for each managing authority. The drafts were shared with the managing authority project team for comments and feedback. Managing authorities also discussed the draft action plan within their organisations. The OECD addressed their comments and revised the action plans.
First Peer2Peer workshop among the six pilot managing authorities	28 November 2024	The first of two Peer2Peer workshops was organised in Brussels. During the workshop, representatives from the six pilot managing authorities shared their observations and lessons learned from the pilot project to date; exchanged and learned about tools for beneficiary capacity building; and discussed ways to optimise managing authority organisational structures, processes and procedures as part of a more systematic approach to beneficiary capacity building.
Second Peer2Peer workshop among the six pilot managing authorities	1-2 April 2025	The second Peer2Peer workshop was organised in Brussels. During the workshop, representatives from the six pilot managing authorities presented their approaches to action plan implementation, shared common challenges and explored good practices to implement the action. They also reflected on ways to sustain beneficiary capacity-building efforts in their organisations.
Development of synthesis report and toolkit	April – June 2025	The OECD team developed this synthesis report and the Managing Authority Toolkit for Beneficiary Capacity Building under EU Cohesion Policy (OECD, 2025[1]) based on the activities and deliverables throughout the pilot project.

Reference

[1] OECD (2025), Managing Authority Toolkit for Beneficiary Capacity Building under EU Cohesion Policy, OECD, https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/support-materials/2025/06/building-beneficiary-capacity-under-eu-cohesion-policy_ed3f6463/managing-authority-toolkit.pdf.