El Salvador

On 3 February 2019, El Salvador entered a new phase of its political history by electing the first president not originating from any of the two camps that fought the civil war (1980-1992). The EU deployed Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs) to the 2018 legislative and municipal elections and to the

2019 presidential elections. Both missions found the elections to be inclusive, whilst delivering several recommendations for future improvement. Political parties within the National Assembly, the Supreme

Electoral Court, the Sanchez Ceren administration, and civil society have expressed their support for electoral reform and EU EOM recommendations, which are largely viewed as important and timely.

Following these EOMs, the EU issued a total of 45 recommendations, including several requiring changes in the legal framework. Key areas of improvements are the structure of the electoral body, the voter register, campaign finance, electoral justice and sanctions, the democratization of temporary electoral bodies, representation of women, media, and the rights of minorities.

The overall objective of this assignment was to contribute to improving the electoral and democratic framework during the inter-election period and raising awareness and understanding of the EU EOM recommendations and technical issues related to their implementation.

The specific ojectives of the mission were the following:

• Generate additional impetus for – or contribute to ongoing debates on – electoral reform;
• Identify areas of agreement and disagreement on EU EOM recommendations among the stakeholders and any political, technical, financial obstacles to electoral reform;
• Propose actions to overcome obstacles to electoral reform, including measures to develop support for and national ownership of the recommendations;
• Identify which EOM recommendations are most relevant to the prevailing country situation and the current phase of the electoral cycle;
• Assess any electoral reforms adopted since the last EOM or which are under consideration (e.g. draft legislation) or which are planned and the degree to which these reflect EOM recommendations and their alignment with international standards for democratic elections;
• Suggest any other possible EU actions that could contribute to strengthening the implementation of the recommendations and/or to the overall improvement of the electoral framework

Following an invitation by the Salvadoran Government to the European Union to observe the Legislative and Municipal elections taking place on 4 March 2018, an Election Exploratory Mission was deployed to the country from 11 to 25 November 2017.

The Mission’s overall objective was to assess whether the deployment of an EU Election Observation Mission for the 2018 elections would be useful, feasible and advisable, in accordance with the criteria set out in the communication on EU Election Assistance and Observation (COM(2000)191) and the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation.

The specific objective of the Mission was to produce strategic analysis and reporting on the ongoing electoral processes and to provide input for electoral reform as well as confidence-enhancing measures during and after the elections.

The Mission met with a wide range of government authorities, election administration, the judiciary, political parties, independent candidates, Armed Forces, human rights institutions, civil society, domestic and international observers, media representatives, international organisations and the EU and other diplomatic communities. The mission undertook field visits to Santa Ana, San Miguel, San Vicente, La Unión, Usulután, Ahuachapán and Chalatenango.

The objectives of the evaluation were to:

• support the decision-making, both at EU strategic (planning) level, and at the level of the design of the action programmes /interventions;
• feed into the reflection on the revision of future development policies in view of the recent adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda;
• demonstrate whether already on-going/planned IPA (I) II, ENPI/ENI, DCI and EDF action programmes/interventions in the area of social protection have taken on board the latest lessons learnt from the previous programming period;
• provide recommendations on the best way to approach and improve its support to the development of social protection systems, in partner countries both in terms of the use of policy dialogue and financial assistance;
• contribute to the preparation and adjustment of action programmes, namely for IPA II, ENI, DCI and EDF assistance to the extent possible;
• feed in the Mid-term Review of financial instruments;
• feed in Mid-term Reviews of country/region multi-annual indicative programmes.

The evaluation used the five standard OECD/DAC evaluation criteria, namely relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability. In addition, the evaluation also looked at the EU added value and the 3Cs.

The evaluation focused on EU support (policy dialogue and financial assistance) provided for the development of social protection systems in partner countries, more specifically on the social insurance and social assistance measures to address the following risks and needs: unemployment, parental responsibilities, sickness and healthcare, work accidents/employment injuries disability, loss of a spouse or parent, old age, housing and social exclusion.

The evaluation covered:

• IPA I beneficiary countries;
• ENPI partner countries;
• Countries covered by DCI and EDF.

The evaluation was conducted in four phases

• An Inception Phase, focusing on the design and the methodology of the evaluation including the reconstruction of the intervention logic and the compilation of an inventory;
• A Desk Phase, focusing on gathering and analysing existing data and information (through literature/document reviews and interviews/focus groups/surveys);
• A Field Phase, including preparation of field missions, visits to the case study countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia*, Malawi, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine*) and drafting of country reports;
• A Synthesis Phase, producing a final report and dissemination of results to concerned stakeholders.