Development cooperation evaluation reports: Comprehensive evaluations

The evaluation focused on the effectiveness of Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ (MFA) development communications in reaching the public and making global development issues visible. It also studied ministry’s processes for developing communication contents and related internal and external collaboration.

The recruitment of Finnish specialists to international positions in the UN and other multilateral organisations plays an important role in Finland’s foreign-, security, trade -and development policies. This review was carried out to gain a clearer picture of international recruitment supported by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA) and generate ideas for how it can be developed further.

How strategic policy level evaluations are used – or are they used? The review assessed the use and utility of different types of evaluations, meta-evaluations and reviews carried out in 2015-2022.

What works well and what does not work in Finland’s development policy and cooperation? Why are evaluations and evaluation capacity important? It is described in the annual report on development evaluation, which sums up the key results of the evaluations completed in 2022.

The evaluation concluded that on-going UN development system (UNDS) reforms have supported a coherent and effective UNDS response to socio-economic impacts of the crisis. There has been a focus on vulnerable groups, including women, refugees, youth, older people, people with disabilities and migrant workers. However, ensuring a strong focus on a more equitable and environmentally sustainable recovery, including action to address climate change, has been a challenge for UN country teams (UNCTs).

An independent evaluation concluded that Finland’s process for influencing the European Union (EU) on development cooperation is relevant, coherent, reasonably efficient and runs smoothly. However, institutionalised Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) systems are almost non-existent.

An independent evaluation concluded that Finland’s humanitarian assistance is relevant to beneficiaries and adapts to their changing needs. Significant results have been delivered on gender equality and disability. Then again, human resource constraints pose limitations and aid management system does not support Finland’s ‘adaptive capacity’.

The evaluation examined the effectiveness of international cooperation, and the combined response of host states, United Nations (UN) system agencies and non-governmental and civil society organisations, including refugee-led organisations (RLOs), in ensuring the protection of the rights of refugees during the global pandemic.

The Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN) is a network of 21 countries that assesses the performance of multilateral organisations. In 2020, MOPAN commissioned an independent external evaluation for the 2015-21 period. The evaluation addresses three main questions related to MOPAN’s efficiency, effectiveness, and relevance.

What do evaluations tell about the Finnish development policy and cooperation? The 2021 Annual Report on Evaluation showcases the main results and recommendations of evaluations over the past year.

The independent assessment studied the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ (MFA) response to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to learn from it and thereby enhance MFA’s ability to respond and adapt development policy and co-operation and humanitarian assistance in crisis situations.

Evaluations are conducted in order to learn from successes and setbacks, and the lessons learned are used for further enhancing the quality of development policy and cooperation. Metaevaluations assess the quality of decentralized evaluations and aggregate findings from them to form an overall picture of the quality of development cooperation.

This independent evaluation studied the future ambition and possibilities of the Finnish water diplomacy. At the same time it looked at the past water sector cooperation to identify lessons that can be learned from processes where diplomatic objectives are intertwined with technical cooperation.

This independent evaluation assessed the transition process of Finnish-Vietnamese cooperation during 2008–2020. It strategically assessed the successes and weaknesses of transitioning and how Finland’s development cooperation has supported this transition towards more diverse and equal cooperation. Furthermore, the evaluation analyzed how have development cooperation and private sector instruments and actors achieved coherence and synergy. The report also highlights broader lessons from the transition of Finnish-Vietnamese cooperation for similar processes in Finland’s other partner countries.

This independent evaluation assessed the development policy and cooperation implemented during 2009-2021 by the Department for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. It strategically examined development cooperation as a whole, the different impacts achieved as well as the sustainability of results through the various funding channels over the decade. The evaluation covered 11 countries under the Department, of which Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine were analyzed in more detail. The evaluation presents recommendations that can help improve development policy and cooperation in the region. The report also highlights broader lessons from this region for the Ministry in general.

Kehitysevaluoinnin vuosiraportissa esitetään yhteenveto evaluointien esiintuomista kehityspolitiikan ja -yhteistyön vahvuuksista sekä kehittämiskohteista. Viime vuonna toteutetut laajat evaluoinnit kohdistuivat mielenkiintoisiin ja ajankohtaisiin mutta samalla haastaviin kehityspolitiikan ja -yhteistyön kysymyksiin. Evaluointien aiheina olivat maaohjelmat hauraissa konteksteissa, vaikuttaminen monenkeskisessä yhteistyössä sekä kumppanimaiden talouden vahvistaminen.

The evaluation examined how Finland's support has contributed to strengthening the economy, creating jobs and improving livelihoods in partner countries. It assessed how development policy objectives had been achieved, what were the strengths and weaknesses of the assistance provided, and proposed measures to strengthen development cooperation in this field.

Ireland, Switzerland and Finland had a peer review of their evaluation functions as is encouraged by the OECD-DAC Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNET). The advantage of combining the peer reviews was that it allowed not only findings, conclusions, and recommendations related to each of them, but also cross-agency learning. The UNEG (UN Evaluation Groupin) norms, independence, credibility and utility, guided the peer review.

This independent evaluation assessed how Finland influences its multilateral partners and their operations in order to advance the international development agenda. The evaluation looked at the various influencing activities by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and their effectiveness and relevance. Furthermore, the evaluation proposes ways for the Ministry to further develop these activities. The evaluation covered 23 multilateral partners of the Ministry, eight of which were assessed in more depth: The World Bank Group, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP, UN Women, IFAD, FAO and ITC. The evaluation, started in June 2019, is based on a framework designed to decipher the multilateral influencing activities by the Ministry as well as the related results. The findings draw on an extensive document review and 174 interviews. The evaluation team also visited the headquarters of the multilateral organisations in New York, Rome and Washington DC as well as country missions to Nepal and Kenya.

Finland’s development cooperation with its long-term partner countries is planned and implemented under a Country Strategy approach, which in its present form was launched in 2012. The purpose of the country strategy evaluation launched in March 2019 was to assess the applicability and feasibility of the Country Strategy approach in fragile contexts, over the period 2012-current, given their specific challenges and requirements. The evaluation drew evidence from the experience of Country Strategies in four countries, namely Afghanistan, Myanmar, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), Somalia and in one region, i.e. the Strategy for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian aid in response to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq was included, to draw wider findings and conclusions. Findings are expected to inform the next generation of Country Strategies.

Kehitysevaluoinnin vuosiraportissa tehdään yhteenvetoa evaluointien esiintuomista kehitysyhteistyön ja -politiikan vahvuuksista sekä kehittämiskohteista. Vuonna 2019 evaluointien teemat kietoutuivat tietojohtamisen ja kehittävän evaluoinnin ympärille. Ulkoministeriön tietoperustaista johtamista koskevan evaluoinnin lisäksi saatiin päätökseen kaksi yhteisevaluointia, ulkoministeriön ja Business Finlandin yhteisen Business with Impact (BEAM) -ohjelman kehittävä evaluointi sekä pohjoismaisessa yhteistyössä toteutettu Nordic Development Fund’in (NDF) evaluointi. Lisäksi yksikön evaluointien puitesopimuksen kautta tuettiin evaluoinnin toteuttamista maatalous-, maaseutukehitys- ja metsäsektorin kehityshankkeista (ARDF) Afrikan ja Lähi-idän osastolla sekä evaluointia Nepalin maaseudun vesivarojen hallinnointihankkeesta Aasian ja Amerikan osastolla. Koko ministeriön evaluointitoiminnan kehittämiseksi sekä evaluointien käytettävyyden ja hyödyllisyyden parantamiseksi Suomi käynnisti yhdessä Irlannin ja Sveitsin vertaisarvion toistensa evaluointitoiminnoista. Siitä ja yksikön muusta ajankohtaisesta kehittämistyöstä kerrotaan tarkemmin raportissa.

The developmental evaluation of the Business with Impact - BEAM programme started in September 2015 and has continued through the whole the programme, until the end of 2019. The purpose of the BEAM programme is to assist Finnish companies and other actors in using innovations to address global development challenges, by converting such innovations into successful and sustainable business, both in Finland and developing countries. The developmental evaluation approach supports the programme management throughout the programme period, provides immediate feedback on the effectiveness of different approaches, and promotes strategic learning within the programme.

This evaluation supports the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) in developing its management of results-related information and knowledge in order to strengthen evidence-informed learning and decision-making at all levels and in all channels of its development policy and cooperation. It explores management and decision-making processes from the learning perspective: How the MFA is able to collect, utilise, learn and inform decisions through documented and tacitly held results information and knowledge.

Kehitysevaluoinnin vuosiraportissa tehdään yhteenvetoa evaluointien esiintuomista kehitysyhteistyön ja -politiikan vahvuuksista sekä kehittämiskohteista. Viime vuonna toteutetut laajat evaluoinnit kohdistuivat mielenkiintoisiin ja ajankohtaisiin mutta samalla haastaviin kehityspolitiikan ja -yhteistyön kysymyksiin. Evaluointien aiheina olivat tyttöjen ja naisten oikeuksien edistäminen Suomen kehityspolitiikassa, pakolais- ja muuttoliikekysymykset sekä hanke- ja ohjelma-arviointien metaevaluointi. Lisäksi tehtiin evaluoitavuusselvitys ihmisoikeusperustaisuudesta ja jatkettiin ulkoministeriön ja Business Finlandin yhteistä Business with Impact (BEAM) -ohjelman kehittävää evaluointia.

The Development Evaluation Unit of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MFA) commissioned an evaluation on forced displacement and development policy. The purpose of the evaluation was to increase awareness and knowledge of the concept of forced displacement and the links between humanitarian assistance and development objectives, and help to integrate these concepts into the practices in the MFA. The evaluation looked at how coherently Finland’s development policy and its targets relating to forced displacement have been implemented and how the coherence could be enhanced in development policy and cooperation.

The purpose of this review was to assess the evaluability of Finland’s Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) implementation and to inform the design of an upcoming evaluation on the implementa¬tion of a HRBA in Finland’s development policy and cooperation between 2012 and 2018. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA) commissioned the review.

The Government of Finland has had a longstanding commitment to promoting the rights and status of women and girls and supporting gender equality. In order to have knowledge and lessons on the results on the ground the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA) decided to carry out an evaluation on women’s and girls’ rights and gender equality. The overarching purpose of the evaluation was to learn from good practices. The evaluation thus searched for gender changes and the mechanism contributing to these changes.

Meta-evaluation of project and programme evaluations in 2015-2017

Kehitysevaluoinnin vuosiraportti

Evaluation on Programme-base Support to Civil Society Organizations – Part 3

Developmental Evaluation of Business with Impact (BEAM) Programme

Evaluation on Programme-based Support through Finnish Civil Society Organizations – part 2

Impact evaluability assessment and meta-analysis of Finland’s support to women and girls and gender equality

Kehitysevaluoinnin vuosiraportti 2016

Meta-evaluation of Project and Programme Evaluations in 2014-2015

A study of the Private Sector Cooperation and Development Evaluation (in Finnish language)

Ulkoministeriö evaluoi kaikki ohjelmatukea saavat 22 järjestöä kolmessa osassa. Tässä ensimmäisessä eva­luoinnissa arvioitiin kuuden järjestön, Crisis Mana­gement Initiativen, Felmin, Reilu kaupan, Suomen pakolaisavun, Taksvärkin ja WWF Suomen kehitys-yhteistyöohjelmien onnistumista.

Finland’s Aid for Trade (AFT) projects in the past years have produced results and contributed to impact in specific sectors, in which Finland has competitive advantages and can bring added value, says just published evaluation report.

Evaluation of Finland’s Development Cooperation Country Strategies and Country Strategy Modality.

Tulosjohtamista pitää kehittää edelleen. Tasa-arvon edistäminen koulutuksen avulla on Suomen vahvuus. Kahdenvälinen yhteistyö on tarkoituksenmukaista ja tuottaa usein myös tuloksia – mutta tiedämmekö tarpeeksi pitkän aikavälin vaikutuksista? Nämä ovat juuri julkaistun kehitysevaluoinnin vuosiraportin 2015 keskeisiä viestejä.

Evaluation of Finland's humanitarian mine action. The first part is an analysis of documents covering Finland's humanitarian mine action in 1991–2009. The actual evaluation is presented in the second part. It deals with the support granted for humanitarian mine action in 2010–2015, and case studies of Cambodia and Angola.

The objective of the evaluation was to obtain independent and impartial information about how Finnish development cooperation has supported the rights of persons with disabilities especially in education. The evaluation also sought to find out how the rights of persons with disabilities and the human rights based approach (HRBA) have materialised in development cooperation in general.

The meta-evaluation assessed the quality of evaluation reports and their Terms of Reference (TORs), Finland’s development co-operation, and evaluation management and capacity development services of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA).

Kuluva vuosi 2015 on julistettu evaluoinnin kansainväliseksi teemavuodeksi. Evaluoinnin teemavuoden kunniaksi ulkoasiainministeriön kehitysevaluoinnin yksikkö (EVA-11) järjestää useita evaluointia ja erityisesti evaluointikulttuuria edistäviä tilaisuuksia. Samalla paneudumme evaluointitoimen kehittämiseen entistä systemaattisemmin osana kehityspolitiikan ja -yhteistyön kokonaisuutta.

Kenya is one of Finland’s long-term partner countries in development cooperation.The purpose of this evaluation is to analyse this relationship as it unfolded in 2007–2013, and to offer recommendations for its future in ways that reflect the evolution of Kenya’s and Finland’s development cooperation circumstances and policies. Findings and recommendations are based on extensive document review and interviews in both countries.

Evaluation: Finland’s Development Policy Programmes from a Results-Based Management Point of View 2003–2013. It finds that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs still lacks a comprehensive approach to Result-based Management (RBM) at the corporate level and that future policy implementation should be guided by a longterm strategic plan that is underpinned by a comprehensive Strategic Results Framework.