The purpose is to strengthen the reliability of data, validity of the findings and recommendations, and to broaden and deepen our understanding of the processes through which program outcomes and impacts are achieved, and how these are affected by the context within which the program is implemented.” Having identified the impact of a given policy in meeting its intended objectives, information on the finance needed to achieve this would enable a cost-effectiveness analysis. Given that AES are the focus of significant investment around the world, with agri-environmental investment in many countries often equal to, or surpassing that of other conservation expenditure (Batary et al ., Other more commonly used approaches to evaluate effectiveness are non-attributioml, that is, not supportive of any causal claim but assessing the level of the indicators against other benchmarks (Coglianese, 2012).