This evaluation has two overarching objectives. Firstly, to provide the relevant external co-operation services of the European Union (EU) and the wider public with an overall independent assessment of the EU's past and current cooperation with the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal between 2014 and 2021. And secondly, to identify key lessons and to produce recommendations in order to inform the responsible decision makers, notably in the European External Action Service and Directorate-General for International Partnerships on how to improve the current and future strategies, programmes and actions of the EU.
Its specific objectives are the following:

• to measure how the cumulative combination of different interventions and modalities were contributing to the expected objectives of the Multi-Indicative Programme (MIP) 2014-2020 at country level, taking into consideration policy dialogue and financial assistance (included budget support);
• to assess to what extent budget support in Nepal contributed to achieve its expected results in the education sector. To assess how sectoral budget support has helped enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of policies in the education sector, strategies and spending actions, as well as administration capacities;
• to assess to which extent EU external actions have supported and continue to support under the priorities of the 2021-2027 MIP Nepal’s overarching priorities of implementing the federalism reform and its graduation from least developed countries; and,
• to assess the impact of the pandemic on the evaluated sectors and the EU support as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evaluation pays particular attention to the areas of i) sustainable rural development (incl. nutrition); ii) education (incl. education (incl. technical and vocational education and training)); iii) federalism reform, strengthening democracy, decentralisation; iv) green growth, human capital dev. & good governance; and v) support response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is intended to lead to the identification of conclusions, lessons learnt (both positive and negative), good practices example regarding the achievement of the EU’s support for Nepal with a set of targeted and useful forward-looking recommendations for the improvement of the programming, assistance, and implementation of current and future EU interventions in the country under the new multi-annual financial period 2021-2027.