Bhutan

The overall objective (Impact) to which this action contributes is:

• To assist Bhutan in reducing poverty.

The specific objectives (Outcomes) of this contract are as follows:

• Specific objective (Outcome) 1: Strengthening local governance and decentralisation;
• Specific objective (Outcome) 2: Strengthening gender mainstreaming, including at local level.

The expected outputs of this contract are as follows:

• Output 1 to Outcome 1 & 2: High-quality technical expertise/support provided to Bhutan, including capacity building actions, to improve implementation of the programmes financed by the EU in the focal sectors and in the cross-cutting areas such as but not limited to : CSOs, governance, gender mainstreaming and support to gender equality and women empowerment, environment, climate, disaster risk reduction, democracy and poverty. Specifically, the support is expected to enhance implementation of the Decentralisation policy and local governance priorities in the 13th Five Year Plan.
• Output 2 to Outcome 1 & 2: Policy Dialogue and engagement between the EU and Royal Government of Bhutan in the cooperation policy areas improved through dialogue facilitation, training, workshops, research and studies, including sector policy assessments under budget support in specialised areas related to local governance, decentralisation and gender mainstreaming.
• Output 3 to Outcome 1 & 2: Series of studies in the Local Government sector and pertaining to gender equality and women participation conducted, in close coordination with the Royal Government of Bhutan.
• Output 4 to Outcome 1 & 2: Organisation of dialogue facilitation, trainings/workshops both in Bhutan and outside Bhutan for Bhutanese stakeholders to improve human resources capacities as well as enhance communication between stakeholders and visibility of EU and RGoB achievements in the sector. Beneficiaries could include officials from the department of local governance, Ministry of Finance (Department of macro-fiscal and development finance), the omen and Children Division (which is the secretariat of the National Commission for Women and Children) under the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, civil servants from the districts and municipalities at local level (e.g. gender focal points, members of Mainstreaming Reference Groups), elected officials and also representatives/members of nongovernmental organisations
• Output 5 to Outcome 1 & 2: As cross-cutting for the sectors (i.e. statistical methodologies for the 2 sectors and for better monitoring system within Bhutan), the provision of technical assistance to the National Statistical Bureau to support an improved statistical system at central and local levels and a strengthened local level data collection and treatment of data in the areas targeted by the EU budget support programme.

This independent evaluation of the WFP Country Strategic Plan in Bhutan assessed the strategic positionning, added-value and results of WFP operations in the country from 2018 to 2022.

The evaluation served the double purpose of accountability (performance and result assessment) and learning (why certain results occurred or not, lessons and evidence for decision-making). It is envisioned that the evaluation will inform the design of the new CSP for Bhutan, which was scheduled for Executive Board consideration in November 2023.

CSP key sectors and activities included:

• Emergency preparedness and response
• Nutrition and school feeding
• Social protection
• Agriculture value chains and smallholder farmer support
• Resilience, disaster risk reduction and management, and climate change
• Institutional capacity strengthening

Cross-cutting themes included: Gender equality and empowerment of women (GEEW), humanitarian principles and protection, accountability to affected populations (AAP), WFP partnership strategy.

The evaluation employed a mixed-method approach that triangulated qualitative and quantitative data from a variety of sources. For this purpose, the evaluation team conducted interviews with different stakeholders including WFP staff at HQ, regional and country level, WFP cooperating partners, donors, UN agencies, ministries as well as focus group discussions with the beneficiaries.

The final report is available at: https://www.wfp.org/publications/evaluation-bhutan-wfp-country-strategic-plan-2019-2023

The objective of the evaluation was to produce and provide objective and impartial information about five ICI (Institutional Cooperation Instrument) projects implemented in 2011 – 2020 in Afghanistan, Bhutan, India and Nepal. The evaluation covered a range of evaluation criteria and questions to be used by different evaluation stakeholders for the purposes of accountability, learning and informed decision-making.

The evaluation focused on the following projects:

• Capacity Buidling for Emission Measurements in India,
• Climate Modelling and Observations (CLIMOB) in India,
• Meteorology Sector Cooperation in Bhutan,
• Finnish-Nepalese Project for Improved capability of the Government of Nepal to respond to the increased risks related to the weather-related natural disasters caused by climate change (phase II and III)
• Geological Survey of Finland’s Support to Afghanistan Geological Survey (AGS, Afghanistan)

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

• an overall independent assessment of the past performance of the 'Technical Cooperation Project in support of the Renewable Natural Resources Sector Bhutan', paying particular attention to its results measured against its expected objectives; and the reasons underpinning such results;
• key lessons learned, conclusions and related recommendations in order to improve current and future Actions.

In particular, this evaluation served as an independent assessment of the:

• extent to which the project has achieved its intended results.
• factors that contributed or created obstacles in the achievement of results.
• identify key lessons that would lead to improved future actions in the country.
• propose practical recommendations and a roadmap that can be addressed through the ongoing EU supported initiatives in the country.