
Aims
Aim of the “Monitoring & Evaluation” Community of Practice (CoP) is accumulation of knowledge and experience in order:
- To assist and facilitate the evaluation of coherence of the MSPs at sea basin level and
- To assist and facilitate the evaluation of national / subnational plans

Within the Learning Strands CoP we want to learn together and collect new knowledge to make it available for real planning processes of the responsible authorities in the North and Baltic Seas and beyond.
Reason
By March 2021, all countries should have finalised their MSPs, covering both the North and Baltic Seas. According to the MSP Directive, these plans should be monitored. Also, the plans will have to be evaluated and should achieve coherence at the sea basin level.
Topic 1: Tracing coherence between MSP plans
- How do we define coherence? How do the various countries understand coherence?
- What are the main similarities and differences in understanding?
- What are the main enablers and constraints in achieving coherence, e.g. in terms of knowledge, policy and institutional setup?
- How do we measure coherence?
Topic 2: Monitoring and evaluation of national MSP
- What knowledge is already available on M&E from other projects/research?
- What has been done with regard to M&E at least in some countries that are in the second or third wave of maritime planning?
- How is this relevant to what the countries in the North and Baltic Seas want to evaluate, both now (e.g. evaluating the MSP process just completed) and later (e.g. the impacts of the plan)?
- What do countries need (methods, knowledge, tools) to be able to do their evaluation in practice?