Our projects

The first project (Net Med Youth) aimed at strengthening civil society dynamics by enabling an improved representation of youth entities throughout the development and implementation of policies and programmes affecting young women and men in Southern European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries. The second project (Med Culture) aimed at improving the governance of the culture sector including promotion of inter-ministerial cooperation, elaboration of national action plans for culture, and improving organisational structures in cooperation with peers across the region, amongst other things.

The main objectives of this mid-term evaluation was to assess in a comprehensive way the performance of both programs with particular attention to intermediate results measured against the objectives; to identify crucial lessons learned and opportunities to generate recommendations that serve as the basis for the intervention improvement; and to assess the advantage of regional mechanisms of support against the bilateral cooperation and the importance of sub-granting schemes regarding their comparative advantages, obstacles and lessons learnt.

The specific objectives were to:

• Asses and analyse the relevance, the coherence, the effectiveness, the efficiency, the means and costs, the impact, and the sustainability of the project
• Identify problems and opportunities faced by the programs as a whole such as freedom of expression and support environment (SWOT matrix)
• Identify and analyse complementarity /synergy/overlap of the projects among themselves and with other programmes in the same field as well as alternative actions potentially achieving the same results
• Develop recommendations to improve implementation in the next phase of the programs tackling performance and impact

To support the planning for the upcoming evaluation of the Indonesia Country Program, the International Assistance Evaluation division (PRA) has commissioned a literature review of findings and lessons learned arising from donor evaluations of official development assistance (ODA) programs and projects in Indonesia as well as academic sources.

The purpose of this study was to review available thematic evaluations, country programme evaluations and major project evaluations in Indonesia. In addition, it was agreed to gather, on a best effort basis, information on how ODA support has evolved for countries with an economy in transition, with focus on Colombia, South-Africa and Nigeria.

The study focused on six sectors: sustainable economic growth, natural resource management, technical and vocational education and training, advancing democracy, public sector capacity building, regulatory reform and the six DAC criteria (relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability).

The main goal of this contract was to raise awareness about the EU and Member States long-lasting support to the Palestinian Authority's budget through the PEGASE programmes and its contribution to the state building process and inclusive social development.

In order to achieve this goal, the specific objectives of this particular mission were as follows:

• The development of a comprehensive visibility strategy for PEGASE 2019-2021 and related communication plan
• The preparation of Draft Terms of Reference for the tendering process for the implementation of the PEGASE 2019-2021 visibility strategy and related communication plan

The project being evaluated followed an earlier project, entitled “Equipping National and Local Actors in Internal Conflict Management Processes with Skills for Dialogue and Constructive Negotiation”, led by UNDP in partnership with DPA and the EU and implemented in 2012-2013. Both phases are part of the Joint UNDP-DPA Programme on Building National Capacities for Conflict Prevention.

The main objective was to provide the EU Foreign Policy Instruments with an independent assessment of the project’s performance regarding its overall objective of contributing to peace and stability by building and consolidating national capacities and initiatives for conflict prevention in conflict affected, fragile countries or countries undergoing transition.

The evaluation targeted the following specific objectives of the project which are formulated at three levels:

• At country level, strengthening the ability of national stakeholders (including civil society) to implement and support internal dialogue and negotiation initiatives and where appropriate, supporting the on-going consolidation of national and local institutions facilitating dialogue and negotiation (in 4 countries involved in the earlier project (2012-13): Bolivia, Ghana, Togo and Yemen; and 5 other countries: Bosnia-Hercegovina, Guatemala, Honduras, Malawi and Timor-Leste)
• At regional level, West Africa and Western Balkans, developing coordinated and complementary approaches linking country-level activities to regional initiatives, including on cross-cutting issues of gender, human rights and environmental and climate change (this includes an element of support to the coordination, knowledge-sharing and practical cooperation at country and regional level between the EU and the UN)
• At global level, strengthening knowledge management capacities and improving ability to integrate lessons learned and good practices into UN/EU support to national partners on conflict prevention

The overall programme aimed at improving the value addition of local small producers and micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) in selected value chains, through the use of inclusive business models. It applied a value chain approach. This in turn made for an enabling environment in which rural income and employment could be increased. Attention was paid in particular to involving women and young people.

The specific contract supported the value chain development for sustainable tourism in cooperation with national and regional stakeholders. The contract included three main fields of cooperation, which aimed at addressing main barriers for tourism sector development in Malawi:

• Field 1: Strengthen vocational education and training in the tourism sector: to improve employability of the trainees and contribute to the development of the tourism industry by developing the skills necessary to improve the current performance
• Field 2: Strengthen development and marketing of tourism products: to support an increased focus on a specific market positioning that differentiates Malawi from the other countries and complements tour itineraries in the region.
• Field 3: Establishment of national and regional tourism networks: to strengthen the dialogue between the Government and the private sector by establishing establish a national platform for public-private dialogue.

The first phase of the project (01/06/2015 – 31/01/2017) saw the successful implementation of a pilot inclusive business model in the Nkhothakota region. The model consisted of one or more groups of rural MSME or smallholders which joined to provide a service or product to an anchor firm. During the second phase of the project (01/02/2017 to 31/01/2019) the inclusive business model was scaled-up to 3 geographical clusters consisting of at least 4 sub-projects each. MSME and smallholders received technical training in their specific product/service line as well as in sustainable development and inclusive cooperation.

Projects supported included, for example:

 Horticulture: Production and provision of vegetable products from the (newly created) Mtwana Nkhandwe rural horticulture group for the Nkhotakota Pottery Lodge’s restaurant.

 Horticulture: Creating business partnership between Mufasa Ecolodge and Winston Chiwaya so that the community farming group can be providing vegetables directly to the lodge.

 Horticulture: Publicising Winston's farm in order to provide fresh vegetables to domestic tourists travelling to the self-catered cottage

 Arts & Crafts: Sunset Curios Market providing innovative, new products to clients of the lodges in Senga Bay, with professional customer service and pricing.

 Community Tours: Formalisation of the Sinthana Community Tour through new advertising materials and training for the Director.

 Arts & Crafts: Sweet Papaya Art group agreed to provide good quality items for Safari Beach Lodge to decorate their lodge with.

 Arts & Crafts: Safari Beach Lodge agreed to provide a space for the Sweet Papaya Art Shop so that clients can purchase products made by Sweet Papaya during their stay at Safari Beach Lodge.

 Arts & Crafts: Sweet Papaya’s Art Shop aggreed to stock and sell pots from local clay artisans, Penwell Pottery.

 Arts & Crafts: Malawi Wowie signed an agreement with The Weaverbirds, a group of local weavers to provide the woven bags to the company.

 Organic waste management: The Senga Bay Vegetable Farming Project was set up by Safari Beach Lodge with support from Cool Runnings (Lodge) and in collaboration with GIZ FNSP and the Salima District Council. The intervention is a response to waste management of organic waste challenges in this beach community and lack of variety in the vegetables that are available for the tourism industry.

 Arts & Crafts: Training was provided for the Penwell Pottery team to welcome tourists on a local pot making and decorating experience. Posters and promotional material was made and distributed.

The global objective was the support in the formulation and negotiation of new Action Document and its annexes in the area of Integral Development in coca-leaf production regions.

The specific objective was to support the EU Delegation to Bolivia in producing the necessary analysis (including cross cutting issues) and draft documentation for the negotiation and formulation of the Action Document based on the existing Concept Note.

The consultants, in support of, in close coordination with and under the supervision of the EU Delegation during the negotiation and formulation process:

• facilitated the scheduling, preparation and reporting of all the necessary meetings with national authorities and/or other parties, and
• produced the draft documents (indicated in the section 2.4. Outputs) necessary for the negotiation and formulation process of The Sector Budget Support for the development of the new National Strategy for Integral and Sustainable Development with Coca (PAPS3).

The purpose of this evaluation was to provide an independent assessment and evidence on the scope and performance of the implemented and on-going EU support for Rule of Law (RoL) funded by the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA I and II ), and the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI ) and its successor the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI). It also encompassed support provided by global thematic instruments, such as the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR).

The Evaluation assessed to what extent the EU support to these institutions led to strengthening of RoL in the respective countries and beneficiaries, and in particular whether essential RoL principles were applied in practice.

The evaluation also aimed to provide recommendations for the improvement of the programming and implementation of EU support to RoL. In line with the ToR, the Evaluation focused on interventions in areas such as the judiciary, fundamental rights and democracy that have aimed to strengthen the RoL, and its results will be used to:

• Provide an overall independent assessment of EU support to RoL funded by the IPA (I and II) and the ENPI/ ENI and other relevant instruments;
• Demonstrate whether already on-going and planned IPA and ENPI/ENI action programmes and interventions in the area of RoL have incorporated lessons learnt;
• Support reflection on the revision of policies and programmes in view of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and new/ current policy framework;
• Provide recommendations to the European Commission (EC) on the most appropriate manner to approach and improve its financial and policy dialogue support to RoL;
• Contribute to the preparation or adjustment of action programmes under IPA II and ENI;
• Contribute to the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework, including through proposing indicators for measuring impact in capacity building in RoL and related activities.

The report is available at: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/rol_final_evaluation_report.zip

The project aimed at supporting the Liberian Ministry of Transport in becoming the lead policy making entity for an efficient and sustainable development of the whole transport sector.

This means that the Ministry should be enabled to formulate and implement relevant laws and regulations concerning road transport. Furthermore, the MoT should be enabled to fulfil a steering function within the sector and monitor progress. The focus was the overall organizational and technical development of the MoT in order to create an organization with functioning roles and processes to fulfil its mandate.

The support measure was embedded in a larger GIZ-funded project with the overall objective: “The responsible public institutions and Liberia’s private sector were implementing reforms in accordance with the National Transport Master Plan, including road maintenance measures aimed at creating employment opportunities.”

The following milestones were developed:

• Overall work plan and timeframe for the assignment during the Inception Phase;
• Capacity and organizational assessment within MoT to identify current strengths and weaknesses of the organization and define existing capacity gaps;
• Reform strategy according to the amended law to define the next steps and interventions;
• Human Resources Capacity Plan (HCD Plan) to develop concrete support measures in order to close the capacity gaps;
• HCD and organizational development measures to accompany MoT staff during the reform and restructuring process.

The purpose of the Experts Mission was to collect factual information concerning the electoral process, in line with the criteria contained in the Commission Communication on Electoral Assistance and Observation [COM(2000)191]. Moreover, the experts produced strategic analysis and reporting on the ongoing electoral processes and provided inputs for electoral reform as well as confidence-enhancing measures, during and after the elections.

The objectives of the missions were to:

• Assess all aspects of the electoral process in light of international and regional commitments/standards and relevant national legislation of Mauritania; evaluate openness, comprehensiveness and adherence to the rules of the different phases of the process, including voting, counting and possibly treatment of complaints and appeals; and make recommendations in view of improvements of the electoral framework.
• Assess the implementation of previous EU election related missions’ recommendations and propose targeted recommendations to the EU and to the authorities of Mauritania to improve the election framework and future electoral processes.
• Provide analysis to help identify needs and potential for additional bilateral or EU electoral support.
• Prepare a draft Final Mission Report, in consultation with representatives of EC/EEAS services presenting an overview of the pre-election situation.
• Following the final de-briefing with EC/EEAS services in Brussels incorporate additional comments into the draft report and provide Commission and EEAS services with a concise Final Report.

The general objective of the project was to contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international standards.

The specific objective was to support the creation of a development strategy for the National Training Institute for Human Rights (INFDH), strengthening its empowerment process and its human rights training missions .