In 2017–2018 together with SIA Safege Baltija we evaluated whether the communication strategy of the Interreg Estonia–Latvia programme has been efficient and the planned target groups have been reached and offered proposals for improving the communication in the future.
Communication activities performed by the Joint Secretariat of the Estonia–Latvia cross-border cooperation programme were assessed using qualitative and quantitative methods for collecting information, including analysis of secondary data on the performance indicators (use of social networks, event attendance, publications), focus group discussion with representatives of the Joint Secretariat, coordinating and supervising institutions from Latvia and Estonia, expert interviews, interviews with project implementers in Latvia and Estonia, as well as electronic survey of the project implementers, applicants and others.
In general, it may be concluded that communication activities implemented under the Programme have reached the target groups in effective way, as demonstrated by statistics and the number of applications submitted, and comments expressed during the interviews and survey. Among future challenges it was concluded that communication on Programme’s and projects results is crucial to provide information to the decision makers in order to support continuation of the Programme in the next planning period.
