Our work in Europe concerns:

• Human and social capital
• Regeneration and economic development
• Performance management
• Governance

 

Human and social capital

In the field of human and social capital, we apply our strong skills in policy analysis and our knowledge of employment, industrial relations, education and training, labour market economics, equal opportunities and social inclusion. Many of our assignments consider the often complex links between social policy, and local and regional regeneration. We provide a wide range of services that contribute to all stages of the policy cycle:

• Strategic advice on policy formulation
• Ex-ante evaluation and Impact Assessment
• Research services, including market, problem and needs analysis and mapping
• Reviews of transnational or innovative projects and programmes
• Policy, programme and project evaluation
• Performance management, including capacity-building
• Human resource planning, labour market analysis and forecasting
• Identification, dissemination and mainstreaming of effective and transferable practice

 

Regeneration and economic development

In the field of regeneration and economic development, our service offer includes:

• Visioning and strategy development
• Project and programme appraisal
• Urban and rural policy studies
• Planning and development advice
• Studies and advice in relation to sustainability and the economics of environmental protection

ICF GHK is able to provide in-house expertise in strategy, economics, planning and architecture according to the requirements of the individual assignment.

 

Performance management

Performance management and managing for results requires more than evaluating the impacts (ex-ante or ex-post) of policy. It demands a detailed examination of the policy delivery processes and challenges to the status quo, including leadership and values of organisations.

Our approach is to take each case on its merits and avoid blanket assumptions or solutions. We focus on understanding the purpose of policy – what is actually required to change? We promote an inclusive process of analysis with stakeholders, supported by clear ‘logic’ models to describe and test the assumed and actual links between policy inputs (resources, instructions) and outputs (real world changes).

A key strength of ICF GHK is its experience in applying and transferring techniques between different geographical and institutional contexts to provide new lessons and insights.

 

Governance

ICF GHK provides a range of services to improve governance. These include:

• Assessment of intervention logics
• Benchmarking
• Support for mainstreaming policy and practice innovations
• Development of indicator systems
• Advice on finance and budgeting systems
• Training, capacity building and technical assistance
• Impact Assessments
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Promotion of democratic and participatory approaches
• Support for public-private partnerships