Evaluation of Coordination of Trade Capacity Building in Partner Countries

Client: EC EuropeAid

Partner(s):

Start/End Date: 23/12/2004 - ongoing

Description:

The Group of Heads of Evaluation Services for External Cooperation of the Member States and the European Commission (EU-HES) agreed in 2000 the desirability of joint evaluations to assess the role played by the Maastricht Treaty concepts of co-ordination, complementarity and coherence (the so-called 3Cs), in the European Union’s development co-operation policies and operations. The general aim of the evaluations is to determine how far the 3Cs have been applied and with what impact. The evaluations are expected to produce evidence, lessons and recommendations to strengthen the quality of European development assistance.

The present evaluation was adopted by the Evaluation Service of the RELEX family of services (lead agency). Belgium, France and the UK are partners of the European Commission for this study, while the Netherlands is a silent partner. In the framework of the 3Cs initiative, the objective of the evaluation described here is to assess the extent to which the European Commission and the Member States have dedicated their efforts to promoting the coordination and complementarity of their Trade capacity building (TCB) initiatives in the ACP countries, and the effectiveness of these efforts.

Following this evaluation, recommendations should be made how to improve the coordination and complementarity of TCB programmes, and foster greater ownership among national and regional stakeholders (state- and non-state actors).

The following services were provided:

* Assessment of the extent to which the EU and its Member States have dedicated their efforts to the coordination and complementarity of the TCB initiatives in developing countries.
* Assessment of the effectiveness of these efforts.
* Recommendations on how to improve the coordination and complementarity of TCB programmes, including attention to fostering greater ownership among local (national and regional) stakeholders (state and non-state actors).
* The outcomes of the study will enable a joint learning process among the EU evaluation services and stakeholders in partner countries in matters of greater trade capacity. In particular, this type of evaluation should generate interest at the level of DAC-OECD, the Commission (DG Trade & DG Dev, AIDCO), EU member states, ACP regional organisations, ACP Secretariat, regional organisations, national Ministries of Trade, Agriculture etc., private sector representatives and other relevant non-state actors.