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

• an overall independent assessment of the past performance of the Action ‘Support the Development and Operationalization of the Partnership for Smart and Sustainable Urbanisation for India and the EU’, paying particular attention to its intermediate 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, including improving their coordination, coherence and efficiency.

The evaluation team assessed the Action using the five standard DAC evaluation criteria, namely: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and perspective of impact. In addition, the evaluation team assessed two EU specific evaluation criteria:

• the EU added value (the extent to which the Action brings additional benefits to what would have resulted from Member States' interventions only);
• the coherence of the Action itself; 1) with the EU strategy in India covered by the EU-India Partnership on Smart and Sustainable Urbanisation and 2) with other EU policies and EU and Member State Actions.

The evaluation team furthermore considered whether gender, environment and climate change were mainstreamed; the relevant SDGs and their interlinkages were identified; the principle of Leave No-One Behind and the rights-based approach methodology was followed in the identification/formulation documents and the extent to which they have been reflected in the implementation of the Action, its governance and monitoring.