Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2017

The evaluation report on 15 years of cooperation between the Republic of El Salvador and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which was initiated in 2017, is part of the gradual exit strategy that Luxembourg has begun with countries that are no longer on the list of preferred partner countries of Luxembourg’s development cooperation because they have reached higher levels of development. An initial exercise of this kind was carried out in Vietnam in 2016. This evaluation report faced certain methodological challenges due to the lack of relevant, reliable data and solid indicators. The report combined quantitative and qualitative analysis methods with a reconstruction of the framework of intervention over the fifteen years in question.

The aim of the report was to assess the change in the development cooperation relations between El Salvador and Luxembourg over that period by evaluating the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency, as well as the sustainability and poverty reduction impact, of the interventions in the context of the national poverty reduction policies applied by the El Salvador authorities. The process of the evaluation led to the development of communication media, in particular a brochure and a video, capturing and highlighting 15 years of cooperation between the two countries. The finalisation of the report and delivery of the communication media is scheduled for the end of April 2018.

This evaluation report attracted the interest of the evaluation community and was the subject of a presentation on the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods at a workshop organised by SOLEP, the Luxembourgish organisation for evaluation and long-term planning.