Laos

The main objectives of this evaluation were to provide the relevant services of the European Union, the interested stakeholders with:

• an overall independent assessment of the performance of the “Support to enhanced cooperation in sustainable transboundary water management in the Mekong Basin”, paying particular attention to its different levels of results measured against its expected objectives and the reasons underpinning such results;
• key lessons learned, conclusions and related recommendations in order to improve future interventions (this will include the presentation of options for potential future follow-up intervention(s)).

This evaluation fed into the EU’s assessment of its engagement in the Mekong sub-region as well as potential follow-up intervention(s) that could possibly be financed under the Regional Multi-annual

Indicative Programme for Asia and the Pacific 2021-2027 (subject to the availability of funds). On this basis, the evaluation was forward-looking and took into account the EU’s bilateral cooperation with the countries of the Mekong, other relevant EU regional projects and programmes (for e.g. on forestry, wildlife, safe food systems), and potential for a Team Europe Initiative stemming from possible synergies with EU Member States’ relevant support (as the case may be).

The overall objective of the future governance programme was to contribute to poverty reduction, economic growth and good governance in Laos.

The specific objective of this assignment was to support the EU and the Government of Lao PDR in the identification and formulation of a range of possible interventions that can be developed into a governance programme, which includes both public administration and aspects of economic governance, namely public financial management.

The proposed interventions will improve, inter alia, transparency and accountability of PFM, promote fair and transparent domestic tax systems, improve domestic revenue mobilisation and procurement, increase the capacity and control of oversight bodies, strengthen the capacity of public administration in service delivery at national, provincial and local level while accompanying the institutional framework and the decentralisation process.

In the framework of its Partnership Instrument, the EU is pursuing action in support of the worldwide abolition of death penalty which is a top foreign policy objective and priority in the EU external human rights policy.

Asia appears as the next frontier in the international campaign against capital punishment. With eight retentionist countries of out 10 ASEAN Member States, South-East Asia (SEA) is a region where capital punishment remains a general standard, with strong roots in local history, cultures and religions/beliefs. A project "Moving away from Death Penalty in South-East Asia" has therefore been designed under the EU's Partnership Instrument. One of its components was this regional awareness campaign with the global objective to promote the abolition of death penalty in South-East Asia

Specific objectives:

• accompany the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) death penalty study and recommendation process;
• develop and deploy a communication plan and tools in support of regional action on death penalty.

The evaluation assessed three regional forestry projects that had support to small producers, development of value chains and the use of participatory approaches in common:

1. ForInfo: Livelihood improvement through generation and ownership of forest information by local people in products and services markets (Mekong, 2011–2015);

2. Finnfor-II: Integrated environmental and forest management co-operation (Central America, 2012–2016);

3. MFS: Sustainable forest management in the Andean region (South America, 2011–2016).

The purpose of the evaluation was to provide guidance to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in planning and implementing regional forestry projects. It produced lessons for future forest sector co-operation and planning of other regional programmes. Specific objectives of the evaluation were to:

• Assess the added value of the regional approach compared to a country-based approach;
• Assess the success of the programmes in promoting sustainable forestry based livelihoods and increasing income of small producers;
• Identify the lessons learned from developing value chains and payment for ecosystem services.

The evaluation was conducted in several phases:

• An inception phase focusing on the design and the methodology of the evaluation;
• A desk and field phase with document review and visits to eight different countries in the three regions;
• A synthesis phase with global-level conclusions and recommendations across the three regional projects, presented in a final report to concerned stakeholders.