Russia

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.

ROM services to be provided through this contract are clustered in three components:

** Component 1: ROM Reviews. ROM contractors will assess the performance of EU-funded interventionson the basis of the following OECD DAC evaluation criteria: relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability.

ROM reviews will cover:

-A sample of EU funded interventions during the inception phase of implementation. The ROM review will support the OM in confirming or updating intervention logic and logframe matrix, in reviewing the monitoring system of the IP, in assessing risks and mitigation measures and fine tune the calendar of activities with a view to improve the performance of the intervention across the OECD DAC criteria.

- ROM reviews will assist the OM in adressing the main implementation problems.

-Other interventions for which Commission services request a ROM review on demand (interventions which could not be visited by EU OMs or for which there is a lack of sector expertise in the EU Delegation/operational unit in HQ).

- Blending operations, focused on asessing the value added of the EU contribution and on the performance of blending interventions in terms of socio-economic development.

** Component 2: Quality assurance and support at design stage for a sample of interventions. Provide technical support to EC services in the formulation of intervention logics and related logical frameworks matrices (logframes) and monitoring and reporting arrangements for a sample of interventions.

**Component 3: Results report (at corporate and intervention level). The Contractor will provide services to encode and quality control results data for a set of interventions subject to results reporting. TOM contractor will ensure quality control of data included in the intervention's logframes. Such quality controls will include, amongs others: verifying that the logframe is correctly encoded and up-to-date , enssuring that the latest values related to logframe indicators are available, and supporting the aggregation of intervention-level results into the EU Results Framework or other frameworks.

The global objective of this study is to develop a methodology for assessing the economic impact of EU sanctions and to apply that methodology to a number of selected cases to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework.

The specific objectives of the proposed study are to

• provide a review and critical evaluation of the existing research related to the topic of the study;
• develop a detailed methodology for analysing the economic impact of EU sanctions, including a description of the concrete steps, options and approaches, that can be replicated and adapted to different types of sanctions and sanctions combinations; and
• test this methodology on a number of selected case studies to demonstrate its usefulness and highlight the related conditions, limitations and issues identified or foreseen.

The ‘economic impact of EU sanctions’ is understood as meaning the impact of EU sanctions on: (1) the economic development of third countries with listed persons and entities directly affected by EU sanctions; (2) the wider economic sectors of which those listed persons and entities by EU sanctions are part of in those third countries; (3) the listed persons and entities themselves; (4) trade patterns between the EU and third countries directly concerned; and (5) EU companies operating in or with third countries directly affected by EU sanctions.

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.

ROM services provided through this contract were clustered in three components:

** Component 1: ROM Reviews. ROM contractors assessed the performance of EU-funded interventions on the basis of the following OECD DAC evaluation criteria: relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability.

ROM reviews covered:

-A sample of EU funded interventions during the inception phase of implementation. The ROM review supported the OM in confirming or updating intervention logic and logframe matrix, in reviewing the monitoring system of the IP, in assessing risks and mitigation measures and fine tune the calendar of activities with a view to improve the performance of the intervention across the OECD DAC criteria.

- ROM reviews assisted the OM in adressing the main implementation problems.

-Other interventions for which Commission services requested a ROM review on demand (interventions which could not be visited by EU OMs or for which there was a lack of sector expertise in the EU Delegation/operational unit in HQ).

- Blending operations, focused on asessing the value added of the EU contribution and on the performance of blending interventions in terms of socio-economic development.

** Component 2: Quality assurance and support at design stage for a sample of interventions.The Contractor Provided technical support to EC services in the formulation of intervention logics and related logical frameworks matrices (logframes) and monitoring and reporting arrangements for a sample of interventions.

**Component 3: Results report (at corporate and intervention level). The Contractor provided services to encode and quality control results data for a set of interventions subject to results reporting. TOM contractor ensured quality control of data included in the intervention's logframes. Such quality controls included, amongs others: verifying that the logframe is correctly encoded and up-to-date , enssuring that the latest values related to logframe indicators were available, and supporting the aggregation of intervention-level results into the EU Results Framework or other frameworks.

This project is part of wider EU public diplomacy and outreach activities towards audiences in Russia and it complements other cooperation programmes of the EU and its member states in Russia.

The overall objective of this action is to support the achievement of the EU’s policy objectives through public diplomacy activities that engage meaningfully with targeted audiences and stakeholders in order to build trust and mutual understanding.

The purposes of this contract are:

• to offer a platform for dialogue and debate on a number of bilateral and global issues for selected Russian and EU experts and interlocutors who can function as moderators/facilitators of a balanced and positive dialogue between EU and Russia;
• to expose selected Russian target audiences to the EU, EU policies and positions and to engage them into a dialogue on a number of bilateral and global issues;
• to expose wider public in Russia to different positions and points of view on a number of bilateral and global issues, as well as to more complete information about the EU, EU policies and positions.

This action consists of five main components which are mutually reinforcing:

• Component 1: EU-Russia Experts Network (on foreign policy). EU-Russia Experts Network brings together experts, analysts and alumni from a variety of institutions and academic centers from Russia and EU member states to discuss actual foreign policy issues (such as economics, EU affairs and human rights) with the aim of coming up with concrete recommendations for a new modus operandi for EU-Russia relations. EU-Russia Experts Network meets on a quarterly basis.
• Component 2: 12 Roundtables/debates on other policy areas to bring together different business representatives networks, journalists, researchers and NGOs representatives. The debates are organised in partnership with selected Russian universities and academic institutions including the EU-supported Jean Monnet centres around Russia, alumni networks from EU and Russian universities, business organisations and representatives of international organisations.
• Component 3: Provision of EU speakers to public events in Russia. A network of experts is established for dedicated events in Russia. The visiting EU speakers are expected inter alia to speak at conferences organised by the Russian Association of European Studies, the European Studies Institute at MGIMO-university, the Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence, the EU information centres, as well as events organised by different think tanks, non-governmental organisations and foundations.
• Component 4: Visiting Russian practitioners to the EU. The visits are addressed to journalists, representatives of civil society organisations as well as civil servants, local government officials, think tanks/analysts, alumni networks and business representatives. 50 Russian professionals benefit from this opportunity each year.
• Component 5: Cross cutting activities, including dissemination to wider audiences through audiovisual products, media relations, awareness raising and PR activities.

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 EU funded Non-State-Actors programme has supported Russian NGOs in enhancing their management, lobbying, development and service delivery skills.

The global objective of this assignment was to promote results of this Non-State Actors' programme cofounded by the European Union in order to enhance their impact and ensure broader dissemination of developed best practices.

The project collected and displayed information on the results and impacts of the programme for Russian citizens in a brochure about the funded projects.