The evaluation focused on Somalia, including Somaliland, and had as overarching objectives to provide the relevant external co-operation services of the EU and the wider public with an overall independent assessment of the EU’s past and current cooperation with the Federal Republic of Somalia, and to identify key lessons and to produce recommendations in order to inform the responsible decision-makers.
The more specific objectives of the evaluation were:

• To take stock of the results achieved during the cooperation period 2014-2021 with Somalia, and to identify which factors have supported and contributed the achievement of results and have hindered or even blocked their achievement;
• To assess along the six OECD/DAC evaluation criteria, namely relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence, impact and sustainability, plus the EU’s additional criterium of EU value added, the performance of the EU’s support in terms of non-spending (mainly policy dialogue) and spending activities (i.e., financial assistance);
• To investigate and assess the extent to which EU’s interventions financed from the 11th EDF were coherent, complementary, of added value and coordinated with other actions financed and supported by other EU instruments, or actions carried out by EU-MS, regional and international donors, i.e., state and/or international organisations;
• Looking forward, to nurture strategies and future interventions of the ongoing programming period (well noting that the broad programming lines for the funding period 2021 to 2027 have been defined, but recognising that there is space for adaptation and for further development of the cooperation portfolio); and
• To assess the extent to which the EU has been able to respond to security, peace, development and humanitarian challenges in the country and how the EU has positioned itself in Somalia in terms of the design, implementation, results and impact of its interventions.

Beyond that, the evaluation played significant role in the discussions on the EU’s wider strategy in the Horn of Africa as well as in discussions on the use of aid modalities, including budget support, in fragile and conflict-ridden country contexts, at a broader level.