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The Country Environmental Profile should identify the environmental issues that need to be taken into consideration in the preparation of the Mali Country Strategy Paper, and assess them, in order to influence - directly or indirectly - the EC's cooperation actions.

The Environmental Country Profile should provide decision-makers in the partner country and the European Commission with clear information on the major environmental issues, as well as on the policies, strategies and programs that concern them, including the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

The purpose of providing this information is to ensure that the EC cooperation strategy can take environmental considerations and climate change objectives into account during the preparation of EU cooperation programs and to integrate them into the guidelines for EU-supported programs and policies. It should also be possible to use this information as a reference for environmental compliance in all development-cooperation-activities in the country.

The Profile will identify key links between environment, climate change and poverty reduction. It will also gather baseline information and help focus policy dialogue and cooperation with the country on key issues such as sustainable development or environmental awareness among policy makers.

The evaluation should allow an understanding of the cause-effect relationship between the activities, the direct effects and the impacts. Evaluations should have as main objectives contributing to accountability, decision making, learning and management improvement.

The main objectives of this evaluation are to provide the competent services of the European Union, the interested parties and the general public:

++ An independent evaluation of the implementation of the Budget Support Program for the forestry sector of Honduras (PAPSFOR), focusing in particular on its 'intermediate' results in relation to its objectives;

++ The main lessons and recommendations with a view to improving the current Action (if applicable) and future.

In particular, this evaluation will serve to evaluate the impact that the Program has had to date and better understand the public perception of this impact.

The main users of this evaluation will be the government, civil society, indigenous peoples, the timber industry, donors and the general public.

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The evaluation comprised two forestry projects financed by the Government of Finland. The first project, 'Development of Management Information System for the Forestry Sector in Viet Nam, Phase II' (FORMIS II), aimed to establish a fully integrated Management Information System (MIS) for forestry decision making. The second project, 'People Participation in Improvement of Forest Governance and Poverty Alleviation in Vietnam' (PFG), aimed to foster the participation of grassroots communities in the national forestry MIS to improve forest governance and contribute to poverty alleviation.

The evaluation covered the period of the FORMIS Phase II (2014-2018) and the implementation period of the PFG (2014-2018). Its objective was to assess the achieved results and impacts of FORMIS II and PFG, as well as their values and merits in the perspectives of their key stakeholders.

For FORMIS II, the evaluation focused on capacity building; information and data sharing policies and practices; IT architecture, functioning and user-friendliness of the platform, applications and database; the extent of use of the system; the contribution and impact of FORMIS project to the ongoing policy reform; and on the role of FORMIS II in supporting the transition from aid to trade between Finland and Vietnam.

Regarding PFG, the evaluation analysed in particular the extent of use of the FORMIS system by communities in the pilot areas; the appropriateness of the livelihood models selected for the pilot sites; and the contribution of the PFG to enhanced participatory forest governance in the pilot areas.

Results Oriented Monitoring (ROM) reviews aim to assist the European Commission’s services and EU Delegations in monitoring of and reporting on EU financed development and cooperation projects and programmes in third countries through independent reviews of the progress of their implementation and the achievement of project results.

The ROM reviews and support missions to be carried out are the following:

a) +++ROM reviews of projects signalled as having implementation problems and where EC services have identified a need for an outside expert review to assist in addressing the problems, identifying causes and options for solution and making recommendations.

b) +++ ROM reviews of other projects for which such ROM reviews may have a particular usefulness, in particular for projects which could not be included in the EUDs’ planning of field visits or for which the necessary sector expertise at EUD level may not be sufficiently available at a given point of time or for innovative projects.

c) ROM reviews of BS programmes: in countries where a BS programme is signalled as having implementation problems, a ROM review may be organized focusing on the programme in question for the sector specific aspects but also covering the Public Financial Management (PFM) and macroeconomics aspects of all BS programmes financed by the EU in the country .

d) ROM support to end of project reporting on results (outputs and direct outcomes), including for BS programmes. These ROM support missions are to assist EC services and EUD in strengthening their results reporting capacities in: assisting with the recording actual results achieved by projects and programmes that have come to an end in the specified calendar year, solving technical difficulties that may occur linked to results reporting, and identifying the systemic needs and modalities for improvement which may be needed in these areas. The ROM support to end of project results reporting missions are to focus on projects of EUR 750.000 or more.

Results Oriented Monitoring (ROM) reviews aim to assist the European Commission’s services and EU Delegations in monitoring of and reporting on EU financed development and cooperation projects and programmes in third countries through independent reviews of the progress of their implementation and the achievement of project results.

The ROM reviews and support missions to be carried out are the following:

a) +++ROM reviews of projects signalled as having implementation problems and where EC services have identified a need for an outside expert review to assist in addressing the problems, identifying causes and options for solution and making recommendations.

b) +++ ROM reviews of other projects for which such ROM reviews may have a particular usefulness, in particular for projects which could not be included in the EUDs’ planning of field visits or for which the necessary sector expertise at EUD level may not be sufficiently available at a given point of time or for innovative projects.

c) ROM reviews of BS programmes: in countries where a BS programme is signalled as having implementation problems, a ROM review may be organized focusing on the programme in question for the sector specific aspects but also covering the Public Financial Management (PFM) and macroeconomics aspects of all BS programmes financed by the EU in the country .

d) ROM support to end of project reporting on results (outputs and direct outcomes), including for BS programmes. These ROM support missions are to assist EC services and EUD in strengthening their results reporting capacities in: assisting with the recording actual results achieved by projects and programmes that have come to an end in the specified calendar year, solving technical difficulties that may occur linked to results reporting, and identifying the systemic needs and modalities for improvement which may be needed in these areas. The ROM support to end of project results reporting missions are to focus on projects of EUR 750.000 or more.

The evaluation’s main objectives were to present:

• an independent overall assessment of the results of the NFD intervention, focusing particularly on the results of the project in relation to its objectives
• the main findings of the intervention and recommendations to improve the current measures and future actions and future strategic choices, also with a view to a possible rider to the project.

The main beneficiaries of this evaluation were the European Union Delegation and the Republic of Madagascar, the Government of Madagascar PREA (Programme of Strengthening the efficiency of the Administration), the contractors and the technical assistance team of the NFD project.

The evaluation was also of interest to the technical and financial partners and to civil society in general.

The specific objective was to provide an independent mid-term evaluation of the NFD project. The mid-term evaluation, as planned in the technical and administrative capacities of the financing agreement of the project, provided answers to the identified evaluation questions, also through an analysis of the country context and in particular through the application of a political economy analysis (PEA).

It was a question of determining the important factors to proceed with ambitious activities around governance such as public finance, reforms of human resources and service delivery of NFD.

This analysis is particularly important in countries with weak governance systems, where it is necessary to verify, at a certain point in the project, the probability that the envisaged reform will achieve results.

The financing agreement signed by the European Union, the technical assistance contract with GOPA, the technical assistance ToR, had to be taken into account. The administrative, accounting and financial procedures manual was consulted for the management aspects of the project.

The first mid-term evaluation of the NFD project covered the implementation period from April 2015 to May 2017.

The thematic aspect focused on the interaction between public finance, human resources and justice.

The overall objective of the consultancy was to build capacity of the National Directorate for Statistics of the Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development (FMoPIED), and Statistics Departments of Puntland Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development (PLMoPIED) and Southwest Administration Ministry of Planning, Investment and Economic Development (SWAMoPIED) to enable these institutions to effectively conduct, supervise and coordinate the statistical activities in the areas under their jurisdiction.

The National Directorate of Statistics under the FMoPIED planed to develop a National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS). The strategy identified various themes that contributed to the development of statistics in Somalia. Gearing towards the implementation of the NSDS, African Development Bank (AfDB) had provided support to conduct specific activities that are outlined in the Strategy. The AfDB support also included institutional reform, enhancement of the professional expertise of the National Directorate of Statistics of the FMoPIED and installation of IT equipment and/or software within the same Ministry.

Background:

Water is one of the most important natural resources of Lesotho and the water sector encompass almost all aspects of life, the economy and the natural environment. The unique geographic location, high altitude and pristine natural quality of the mountain areas position Lesotho as the ‘Water Tower’ of southern Africa. The sustainability of water resources is threatened by degradation of the catchment areas. Land and water resources cannot be easily separated or managed independently of one another. This implies that coordinated and integrated planning is required and this can be achieved by instigating Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) approach within the country. The establishment of Integrated Catchment Management is regarded as the most important challenge in relation to water resources management – especially in view of the challenges presented by the changing climate conditions with chances of more prolonged droughts and heavy rains. The complexity of implementing ICM is also exacerbated by multifaceted issues of land use patterns and the varied roles played by stakeholders, communities and government.

Integrated Catchment Management includes measures to guarantee water quantity and quality in the entire catchment, such as protection of sources of water (e.g. wetlands), buffering of run-off (e.g. vegetation cover) and water quality (e.g. effluent control). It also includes measures to satisfy demand, such as water for irrigation, industrial use and household consumption.

Global objective:

contributing towards effective implementation of Integrated Catchment Management in Lesotho through following up on previous operationalisation of the ICM framework, including improved coordination among relevant stakeholders in line with the Long-term Water and Sanitation Strategy.

The specific objectives are to:

- Further support the institutional and legal reforms for operationalising the ICM Framework, both at national level and at catchment level and based on the established ICM organogram

- Decide for each level of the organogram the required expertise needed and formulate key job descriptions. A gap analysis (also for the pilot sub-catchments) and recommendations on training and / or recruitment is to be made

- Contribute to development of catchment management plans for each of the prioritised pilot catchments including watershed improvement plans of action and tentative budgets

- Support the Lesotho Department of Water Affairs (DWA) in undertaking the identification, organisation, initial needs assessment, surveys, and planning cycle with pilot communities

- Support DWA on the development of a holistic nationally accepted and community based participatory watershed planning guideline, to be approved by the National Inter-Ministerial Catchment Committee (NICMC)

- Support DWA in preparing a draft communication strategy guideline

- Identify key capacity needs in the Department of Water Affairs, and support the process of capacitating the Department to enable it to optimally play its role in ICM.

The global objective of the assignment is to support the Government of Liberia in implementing its Intended National Determined Contributions (INDC) by operationalising the EU-Liberia Climate Change Alliance.

Specific objectives of this consultancy are:

• Recommend options to implement Component 1 of the EU-Liberia Climate Change Alliance – better solid waste management (through recycling and composting) – on the basis of a sound analysis of the solid waste management sector in greater Monrovia
• Recommend options to implement Component 2 of the EU-Liberia Climate Change Alliance – capacity building – on the basis of an in depth gap analysis of the institutions involved in the implementation of the INDC

The main objective of the evaluation was to: ‘assess how coherently Finland’s development policy and its targets relating to forced displacement have been implemented and how the coherence could be enhanced’.

The evaluation covered the period 2012 until late-2018 which includes the two last Development Policy Programmes (DPPs) of 2012 (MFA 2012) and 2016 (MFA 2016), with emphasis on the latter part of the period.

The backdrop to this evaluation was the growing complexity of the drivers of forced displacement, the historically high numbers of those displaced and the increasingly protracted nature of displacement. These conditions constitute major global challenges for peace and security, human wellbeing and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) amongst many other impacts.

This evaluation was a formative evaluation, steering the outputs towards a learning process, the main purpose of which was to increase knowledge, awareness and the operationalisation of the humanitarian development nexus (HDN) and the concept of forced displacement (FD) within the MFA. Aligning development cooperation and humanitarian assistance programming more effectively in relation to forced displacement expected to enhance PCD within the MFA and with its partners.

The Evaluation also served wider policy making intentions: it contributed significantly to the preparation of the MFA’s 2020 DPP, and it also contributed to increased knowledge on how to better promote the 2030 SDGs Agenda.

The three questions sought to ascertain: the overall understanding of and approach to FD and HDN and how it has evolved over the evaluation period 2012-18 (EQ 1); its adequacy and the scope of policy influence in this context (EQ 2); and the extent of policy coherence (EQ 3).

The evaluation undertook three country/regional case studies: Afghanistan, Jordan/Lebanon/Syria (covering the Syrian refugee crisis and termed MENA (Middle East and North Africa for short) and Somalia (in view of the MFA’s engagement in long-term displacement and development contexts).

The report and other material are available at:

https://um.fi/development-cooperation-evaluation-reports-comprehensive-evaluations/-/asset_publisher/nBPgGHSLrA13/content/evaluointi-pakkomuutosta-ja-kehityspolitiikasta/384998