Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2016

In 2016, the Ministry continued to apply its evaluation policy, while extending and diversifying the scope of its actions.

Although the objectives of each evaluation are different, learning is a key aspect and is at the heart of all evaluations.

The Ministry carried out the following evaluations:

1. Mid-term review of the Indicative Cooperation Programme (ICP III, 2012-2016) between the Republic of Senegal and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The aim of the review was to make an intermediate assessment of Luxembourg’s contribution to the achievement of Senegal’s development strategy in terms of the ICP’s priority areas. These areas are: health, technical education, vocational training and occupational integration, decentralisation, local governance and civic education.

2. Evaluation of interventions carried out in the area of development education and awareness-raising of Luxembourgish public opinion by the non-governmental organisations Handicap International and Action Solidarité Tiers Monde. The purpose of this evaluation was to verify the capacities of the two NGOs to implement development education and awareness-raising activities effectively and efficiently and to verify the impact of these activities on the behaviour of the target audience.

3. Evaluation of the activities of five Luxembourgish human rights NGOs (Action Solidarité Tiers Monde, Bridderlech Deelen, Consortium Bridderlech Deelen/Caritas, Solidaresch Hëllef Reiserbann, Enfants de l’espoir).

4. A report on development cooperation relations between Luxembourg and Vietnam. This report analyses the development cooperation relations between these two countries over the last fifteen years as well as the impact of the Luxembourgish contribution in terms of poverty reduction in Vietnam, with the aim of identifying good practice.

5. A diagnosis and evaluation of the needs of the approved non-governmental development organisations in terms of capacity building. This exercise was the first of its kind. Its aim was to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various types of development NGOs with which the Ministry collaborates and maintains a partnership relationship as well as the capacity building needs that arise therefrom.

6. Evaluation of the emergency.lu project. This exercise had two aims: to assess the project in terms of the OECD DAC criteria commonly used in the field of evaluation (relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and viability) and in terms of the functioning of the public-private partnership at the heart of the emergency.lu project.

7. Evaluation of Luxembourg’s development cooperation’s capacity building approaches as part of eight interventions in West Africa implemented by LuxDev, the Luxembourg agency for development cooperation. The specific aim was to analyse the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency, impact and viability of the approaches used in the eight interventions selected in order to present some conclusions and recommendations, based on which a proposal for an overall capacity building system will be formulated. This exercise was started in December 2016 and will last eight months. The final report is expected in July 2017.

The executive summaries of these evaluations can be consulted on the website of Luxembourg’s development cooperation (http://www.gouvernement.lu/4483791/politique-evaluation).

Apart from managing and monitoring the evaluations, the Ministry pays considerable attention to the work of the evaluation networks. In 2016, the Ministry attended the meetings of the Evaluation Network of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee and those of MOPAN (Multilateral Organization Performance Assessment Network), which Luxembourg will be chairing in 2017. The Ministry also attended several meetings organised by the Réseau Francophone de l’Evaluation (RFE) and the Société luxembourgeoise de l’Evaluation et de la Prospective (SOLEP). 

The report “Evaluation Systems in Development Cooperation” was published in 2016 by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. Luxembourg’s development cooperation co-financed this report, which describes how the evaluation systems operate in the OECD member countries’ various development cooperation departments and identifies their general trends.