Een gebiedsgerichte en samenhangende aanpak voor een leefbaar en gezond landelijk gebied – verkenning van mogelijkheden voor beleidsmonitoring en evaluatie

The Dutch government aims to ensure a sustainable future for rural areas in the Netherlands. This means that water and nature are of high quality and the negative consequences of climate change are counteracted. Additionally, the government wishes for rural areas to be a pleasant living and working environment. In 2023, it provided the draft National Programme for Rural Areas (Ontwerp Nationaal Programma Landelijk Gebied, Ontwerp-NPLG). This document describes the existing national targets and how they are connected. As every area is different, the approach must be suitable for the area’s characteristics (area-based). The national and provincial governments will accordingly take measures to achieve the maximum set goals.- Four knowledge institutes have jointly explored the preconditions for assessing whether the goals are being achieved (monitoring) and how the measures’ effects can be assessed (evaluation). - The measures will influence the way in which rural areas in the Netherlands are used and divided, for instance for agriculture, housing and commercial activities, therefore resulting in the measures’ additional effect on prosperity, human and animal well-being and the countryside's liveability. The government would therefore like to obtain knowledge of the possibilities for evaluating the social and economic consequences of the measures, for example in relation to employment and public health. -Among other things, this exploration shows that existing methods (such as measurement networks and models) have already yielded various insights into the measures’ effects on nature, water and climate. However, more detailed information is necessary for a full evaluation. Moreover, an overview of all measures taken by the provincial government is required. Existing methods take insufficiently into account how the measures affect one another. The overview of the social and economic consequences is also incomplete. Both requested insights could be provided using monitoring and evaluation focused on the coherence between nature, water and climate. A system-oriented approach allows the government to take effective measures contributing to multiple goals simultaneously. -The four knowledge institutions involved are RIVM, the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Deltares. The exploration was requested by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.