Concept of intervention

The 2017 Better Regulation Package uses the term 'intervention' to refer to activities undertaken by the European Union (EU) and grouped together for assessing performance. The concept was formally introduced for INTPA and the RELEX family in early 2018, with the approval of a document entitled 'OPSYS terminology: harmonisation of 5 key terms' by the Management Meetings of INTPA and NEAR (Ares (2018)831615, 13 February 2018).

INTPA uses the term intervention to identify a coherent set of activities and results that constitutes the most effective (hence optimal) operational entity for follow-up and reporting. As such, these operational entities are identified in the IT system (OPSYS) and represent the backbone of INTPA's operational reporting, management, monitoring, evaluation and results collection.

Every intervention has an internal coherence (a theory of developmental change) translated into a logical framework matrix (or logframe) that defines: (a) the rational mechanism for delivering the intended change;  and (b) the concern for monitoring, reporting and communicating results.

The regular update of the initial intervention logframe and its indicators' values is necessary and reflects progress in the realization of activities and achievement of results, as well as adaptation to moving environments.

Why do we need interventions?

Categories traditionally used by INTPA (indicative programming documents, actions, financing decisions, contracts, payments, financing agreements, etc.) are conceived for administrative, financial and accounting processes (input-related), but not specifically designed for operational (results-related) management acts, such as:

• Managing operational implementation
• Following up on implementation results
• Assessing performance
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Internal and external reporting and communication
• Aggregation for higher level reporting

Interventions, on the contrary, are specifically created to constitute base units for these results-related processes. They are assigned to operational managers who deal with them as a single operational entity in OPSYS.

Further information and how to apply the concept of intervention to our result approach can be found in Interventions & Results in OPSYS – Instructions to Staff - ANNEX 1.