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The general objective of this assignment was to provide the European Commission, EU Member States, and other stakeholders with an independent final evaluation of the EU Trust Fund Bekou. The Bekou Trust Fund had been established in July 2014 to support the Central African Republic in its transition from crisis to development through stabilisation, reconstruction, and resilience-building interventions. The final evaluation covered the period from the Fund's inception until 2024. This strategic evaluation had a dual thematic scope: on the one hand, all the sectors of intervention financed by the Fund, and, on the other hand, the Fund as a political and financial instrument.

The specific objectives of the evaluation are:

• To assess the response of the Bekou Trust Fund to the needs of beneficiaries and its contribution to results in a crisis context and regarding the SDGs;
• To assess the ownership by stakeholders in the CAR and the sustainability of the interventions financed by the Bekou Trust Fund;
• To identify lessons learned from the Bekou Trust Fund within the framework of the principles of aid effectiveness;
• To examine the comparative advantages of the functioning of the Bekou Trust Fund and on the sustainability of its working methods.

The global objective (Impact) to which this action contributed was to enhance youth engagement and youth inclusion in the programmes and policies of the European Union Delegation to Malawi.

The specific objective of this contract was to provide technical, administrative and communication support to the MW-YSB to efficiently and effectively implement its role and fulfil its mandate.

This project aimed to learn from EU programme implementation in support of refugees and host communities and obtain an assessment of results reported under programme T05-EUTFHOA-KE-69 ‘Enhancing self-reliance of refugees and host communities’, while improving in programme monitoring and evaluation frameworks with the aim of enhanced effectiveness and efficiency of future implementation.

Specific objectives:

• Through third party monitoring (TPM) of EUTF-funded projects T05-EUTF-HOA-KE-69-01 and T05-EUTF-HOA-KE-69-02 in Kakuma and Dadaab, verify results reported thus far by IPs;
• Improve the monitoring system of ongoing EU actions under decision T05-EUTF-HOAKE-69, through hands-on support to EU implementing partners;
• Collection of strategic end-line data of EUTF projects assessing the degree of self-reliance of project participants.

Under this framework agreement, suppliers will provide advice and expertise to FCDO in the thematic areas of education, gender and social inclusion. The exact services provided will be determined through call-down contracts.

In terms of education, the services will notably promote learning for marginalised children at primary and secondary school levels, with a focus on children with disabilities, out of school children, children affected by crises, and hard to reach girls.

Gender equality is a cross-cutting issue for all FCDO work, and an explicit focus in fragile, conflict and humanitarian settings. The expected services will notably focus on strengthening national systems, working in partnership with private sector and civil society.

The services on social inclusion aim at addressing the underlying structural causes of poverty and inclusion, working in multi-dimensional approaches.

The general objective was to help strengthen democratic governance in Burundi by building the technical capacity of the National Communication Council and the Ombudsman Institution of the Republic of Burundi.

The specific objectives were :

• To support the National Communication Council in operationalising the implementation of its Triennial Strategic Plan (TSP) 2023-2025.
• Support the institution of the Ombudsman in the implementation of its Strategic Plan 2024-2027 and in the installation and operation of the integrated appeals management system which also takes into account the gender dimension.

Task 1. Provided technical support to the CoM signatories to develop and implement SECAPs:

The project provided support to five selected CoM signatories on the step-by-step preparation of SECAPs through seminars/webinars, on-line/face-to-face consultation, site workshops. Detailed action plan with certain milestones, phases, implementation responsibilities, and implementation timeline were prepared for each municipality. Municipalities in Azerbaijan did not have the technical or financial capacity to implement all actions stipulated in their SECAP. The project supported pilot activities for Mingachevir municipality to show how it can effectively turn its SECAP into practical action and play an active role in greening processes at local levels. Lessons from these pilot projects helped other municipalities to identify possible solutions for rolling out their own SECAPs.

Task 2: Provided technical support to the M4EG signatories to develop LEDPs:

The project provided support to ten selected M4EG signatories on the step-by-step preparation of LEDPs through seminars/webinars, on-line/face-to-face consultation, site workshops. Detailed action plan with certain milestones, phases, implementation responsibilities, and implementation timeline were prepared for each municipality. The project also aimed to disseminate amongst the signatory municipalities a successful experience in development of the LEDPs.

This mid-term evaluation assessed the KWIHAZA project, “Transformation towards sustainable food systems”, implemented in Rwanda and co-funded by the European Union and the Government of Luxembourg together with the Government of Rwanda. It was both summative and formative in nature, serving the dual purposes of accountability and learning. The evaluation examined the project’s overall performance at mid-term and aimed to generate lessons for the remainder of implementation and a possible second phase. More specifically, it assessed the project’s achievements and added value, identified lessons learned, best practices, obstacles and failures, and considered whether future action should be reoriented.

The evaluation was conducted against the broader backdrop of Rwanda’s efforts to transform its food system in response to persistent structural challenges, including low productivity, weak value chain linkages, limited value addition, post-harvest losses, and constrained access to finance. Within this context, it examined the extent to which KWIHAZA had progressed in supporting the transition towards socially and environmentally inclusive food systems through interventions in aquaculture, fisheries and horticulture, with particular attention to women and youth. It covered the project’s three result areas – aquaculture, fisheries and horticulture – and the full range of intervention themes, including support to smallholder organisations, SMEs and aspiring young entrepreneurs, as well as the enabling environment for inclusive value chain development and sustainable food systems.

The evaluation assessed the project against the OECD DAC criteria of effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and sustainability. It also considered unintended effects and explicitly addressed the cross-cutting themes of environment, gender and inclusion. Methodologically, the evaluation followed a theory-based framework and used a mixed-methods approach, including a mission in Rwanda.

The global objective of this assignment is to undertake a final evaluation of the performance of the PROMOVE-Comercio implemented by UNIDO.

In particular, the evaluation will focus on:

- an overall independent assessment of the performance of the PROMOVE-Comercio project, paying particular attention to their actual levels of 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 interventions.

In particular, this evaluation will serve as source to inform decision-making on possible future support to trade facilitation in Mozambique and potential replicability in projects in similar context.

The main users of this evaluation will be the European Union Delegation to Mozambique, European Commission, Mozambique trade related authorities (MIC), Implementing Partners (UNIDO, UNCTAD), and other public institutions that are benefiting from the intervention (INNOQ, IPEME, APIEX).

The Specific Objectives are threefold (and interconnected):

• To support DG INTPA, through analyses, in its in-house knowledge/policy reflection on its future engagement with LAs and the place of decentralized cooperation in it, connecting it with important EU development policy trends and thematic priorities such as the so-called “geographisation” of EU aid, the Global Gateway strategy, the EU engagement in fragile states and support to local democracy.
• To maintain a strategic relationship between DG INTPA and a selection of the 57 cityto-city Partnerships (“champions”), including through the organization in Europe of a 3 rd global conference during the 1 st semester of 2025.
• To communicate strategically about the results, lessons learnt and added value of the overall programme and advocate at EU and international level for enhancing support to decentralized cooperation/city-to-city partnerships in the future.

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

• An overview of the FPI funded actions to counter disinformation/FIMI
• An overall independent assessment of the past performance of the actions relevant to countering foreign interference and manipulation of information, funded under different strands of budget managed by the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (NDICI-Crisis Response, NDICI-Foreign Policy Needs, Thematic MIP Peace and Stability, Instrument Contributing for Stability and Peace Article 3, 4 and 5 respectively), paying particular attention to their approach, the coherence of the approach taken in different countries, intermediate or final results measured against expected objectives; and the reasons underpinning such results;
• An in-detail evaluation of 12 actions to be selected in the inception period;
• Key lessons learned and related recommendations in order to improve current and future Actions, particularly concerning the approach taken to countering FIMI and disinformation in third countries;
• Key lessons learned to improve coordination and articulation with other actions and initiatives in the field of countering FIMI/disinformation implemented by other EC services (NEAR, INTPA, COMM, CNCT, JRC, RTD) and EEAS.

The specific rationale for undertaking this evaluation was to assess the outcomes, approach, and coherence of FPI-managed activities in the field countering disinformation/FIMI, as well as the added value of these activities, by the objectives defined in relation to the different instruments that fund them, i.e. to contribute to peace, stability and conflict prevention in situations of urgency, emerging crisis, crisis and post-crisis, defending and promoting EU interests and values, and pursuing actions towards peace, stability and conflict prevention. It also assessed the extent to which these actions were coherent with the EU policies and to what extent they added value and synergy to the other initiatives/actions of the EC and EEAS in this domain outside and inside the EU.

This sector evaluation contract covered 46 actions for the overall assessment and 12 actions for in-depth analysis. During the Inception and Desk phase, this sample of 12 actions was selected based on criteria agreed during the Inception phase. This sample reflected the variety of countering FIMI/disinformation actions, geographic spread and funding instruments as well as the fact that some are already in their second phase. The sample allowed drawing conclusions, lessons learnt and recommendations for countering FIMI/disinformation actions managed by FPI in support of EU policies. The focus of the evaluation was on assessing the approach taken in relation to FIMI/disinformation under the different Actions, progress to date and, by explaining why progress is happening or is not happening as planned, providing recommendations on how to improve the approach in order to counter FIMI/disinformation more effectively.

In particular, this sector evaluation served to understand the performance of the actions, its enabling factors and those hampering a proper delivery of results, with a view to informing the planning of future EU interventions in relation to countering FIMI and disinformation. To this end, this sector evaluation also looked at the package of actions as a whole and make recommendations regarding strengths, weaknesses and gaps, including by looking into options for more coherent results and monitoring and reporting, in the type of interventions as relevant to impactfully counter FIMI and being able to measure and report results across the sector.

The Final Evaluation Report is available at this link: https://fpi.ec.europa.eu/projects/projects-action/global-thematic-evaluation-eu-actions-counter-disinformation-and-foreign-interference-and_en?prefLang=mt