Laos: Final Evaluation of the project "Support to the Strenghtening of Training and Expertise Capacities of the Ministry of Finance in RDP LAO

Client: Laos Ministry of Finance

Partner(s): IBF

Start/End Date: 28/11/2008-31/3/2009

Description:

The project “Support to the Strenghtening of Training and Expertise Capacities of the Ministry of Finance in RDP LAO” was articulated on two axis: on one hand, support to decision-making in order to bolster the action implemented by the Ministry of Finance to strenghten and modernise the economic and financial administrations; on the other, the set-up of a continuous training plan within the Ministry of Finance.

The final evaluation of the project aimed to assess the relevance of the pursued goals and the employed methods, as well as the achieved results.

This final evaluation had to allow the decision-making regarding the pursuit of such supports, the orientations that should characterise them and the modalities of their set-up, taking into account a strenghtened coordination between donors, as well as the commitments of the Paris Declaration. It had also to determine the advantages of a new similar project.

The evaluation covered both the goals, the content and the set-up of the actions, including the action of the technical assistant. It has been carried out in accordance with the usual criteria for an evaluation of policies and aid programmes, namely relevance, coherence (internal and external), effectiveness, efficiency, impact and viability.

The following services were provided:
• Evaluation of the relevance of the project’s goals, compared to the critical issues;
• Analysis of the general coherence of the programme, compared to the employed means;
• Analysis of the set-up of the project, including the role of the technical assistant;
• Analysis of the relevance and coherence between the implemented actions and the announced goals;
• Analysis of the good articulation of the project with the actions implemented by other donors and the LAO government;
• Evaluation, for each axis, of effectiveness and efficiency of the implemented actions’ results;
• Formulation of recommendations on a possible new intervention in this sector.