During this Peer Exchange, 15 practitioners from Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Spain, as well as representatives of the European Social Network and the European Commission, exchanged on concrete challenges and emerging practices of implementing (e)voucher schemes.

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This second session of the Peer Exchanges looked at the different existing e-voucher schemes in EU Member States and explored the feasibility of such measures.

It focused on the key design and implementation elements, the main benefits and challenges of e-vouchers schemes and the potential impact these can have on the end recipients.

The event took place in the context of the recent amendments in EU funding to address the social impact of the pandemic, as well as the merging of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) into the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) in the new funding period.

Peer Exchanges aim for knowledge sharing between partner organisations involved in the implementation of the FEAD-funded measures.

The Peer Exchange balanced panel discussions with interactive peer consultations, providing opportunities for maximising communication between participants. It focused on:

• the advantages and disadvantages of e-vouchers/vouchers for the target population and the implementing partners;
• how to tailor the delivery of e-vouchers/vouchers to the target population needs;
• how to define the target groups;
• how to involve the right partners and establish cooperation processes.

Peer Exchanges are part of a cycle of capacity-building activities aiming at improving the delivery of FEAD at national, regional and local level during the transition period from 2020 to 2021.