This assignment consists of an evaluation of the European Union’s Budget Support in Montenegro, focusing on three strategic areas: Public Administration Reform (PAR), Integrated Border Management (IBM), and the response to COVID-19. It covers four sector budget support programmes implemented between 2016 and 2026, including the PAR programme, two IBM programmes, and COVID-19 crisis response support. The evaluation will assess the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, EU added value and sustainability of these interventions, with particular attention to their contribution to Montenegro’s EU accession agenda. It will examine how EU financial support, policy dialogue and complementary technical assistance have supported reforms, strengthened national systems, and contributed to governance, security, economic recovery and social resilience.
The work will combine document review, interviews, field visits, quantitative analysis and stakeholder consultation, structured around reconstructed intervention logics and evaluation questions. The evaluation will provide evidence-based findings, conclusions and recommendations for future EU support in Montenegro.
Methodologically, the assignment will follow the OECD-DAC approach to budget support evaluation, structured around the levels of the intervention logic: inputs, direct outputs, induced outputs, outcomes and contextual impact indicators. The evaluation will not aim to prove direct causality for higher-level results, but will assess the plausibility and consistency of EU contributions in relation to observed changes. Evidence will be gathered through a combination of documentary review, administrative and statistical data, interviews with EU, government, donor and civil society stakeholders, focus groups and field visits.