Publications

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 insight report on the conference on Advancing Gender Equality through (Feminist) Foreign Policy convened by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto. The conference was held in Helsinki, Finland on 16 November 2022.

The evaluation is a part of a series of evaluations conducted on projects implemented with the terminated Concessional Credit instrument. These evaluations support the programming, development, and management of the Public Sector Investment Facility (PIF) instrument.

The aim of this guidance note is to strengthen the coherence, complementarity and effectiveness of humanitarian aid, development cooperation and peacebuilding. The guidance note is intended as a practical tool especially for the use of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, diplomatic missions and stakeholders.

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).

The strengthening of civil societies is an important goal in Finland’s development policy and a means to achieve other development policy goals. Supporting civil societies is important in the current world political situation, where civic spaces are shrinking and autocratization is on the rise.

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.

The study analyses how Finnish education experts have been positioned within international organisations and have influence on development cooperation in the education sector. In addition, the study identifies the career paths of the experts and explores their views on Finland’s role in global development cooperation in the sector.

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 External Review and Evaluation Team (ERET) is contracted for three years (2020-2023) to conduct Mid-Term Evaluations (MTE) and annual reviews of three forestry programmes: Forestry and Value Chain Development Programme (FORVAC), Participatory Plantation Forestry Programme phase 2 (PFP2), and Tree Outgrowers Support Programme (TOSP).

The evaluation covers a two-year period from January 2018 to December 2019 and provides an overall independent assessment of the performance of the PEGASE Direct Financial Support (DFS) paying particular attention to its results measured against expected objectives and the reasons underpinning such results. It provides key lessons learned, conclusions and related recommendations in order to improve current and future PEGASE programmes.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland commissioned the Ex-Post Evaluation of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Western Nepal (RWSSP-WN, 2008-2019) and the Final Evaluation of the Rural Village Water Resources Management Project (RVWRMP, 2006-2022). The evaluation covered all three phases of the RVWRMP and two phases of the RWSSP-WN.

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.

The evaluation is a part of a series of evaluations conducted on projects implemented with the terminated Concessional Credit instrument. These evaluations support the programming, development, and management of the Public Sector Investment Facility (PIF) instrument.

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.

Social protection is a human right and a key intervention in protecting against poverty and enabling sustainable growth. As new social protection instruments are designed for new challenges, such as external shocks (climate events, natural disasters, pandemics, wars/conflicts, displacement), there is a need to understand programmes better, and to consider gender implications.

The study was conducted to provide directions for Finland's long-term grant-based development cooperation towards new forms of partnerships in Nepal, in the wake of Nepal’s upcoming Least Development Country (LDC) graduation in 2026.

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.

The Finland in the World media 2021 is a summary of the responses of Finland’s missions abroad to a media monitoring survey

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 report on the future cooperation between Finland and Estonia was drafted by the rapporteurs, ex-ministers Anne-Mari Virolainen and Jaak Aaviksoo, supported by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs and the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute. It was commissioned by the Finnish and Estonian governments. The report analyses the current state of the bilateral relations and gives recommendations on how to develop the Finnish-Estonian cooperation in the future.

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.

Strengthening multilateral cooperation is a key long-standing objective of Finland's foreign policy. Tackling cross-border challenges, many of which are still unknown, requires cooperation based on a rules-based approach and international law.

The evaluation presents the results for five Institutional Cooperation Instrument (ICI) projects implemented in four South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, India and Nepal) since 2011.

The independent evaluation of the seventh replenishment round of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) evaluates its results. The evaluation covers the years 2018-2021 and brings together the results of 34 separate evaluations conducted during that time, taking into account the final evaluations of 1,800 completed projects.

The UN Security Council Resolution 2250 Youth, Peace and Security, adopted in 2015, and the subsequent Resolutions 2419 (2018) and 2535 (2020) recognise the positive and active role of youth in preventing and resolving conflicts, building peace, and preventing violent extremism. Member States must take the needs and perspectives of youth into consideration and encourage young people to take part in decision-making and all stages of peace processes.

The External Review and Evaluation Team (ERET) is contracted for three years (2020-2023) to conduct annual reviews and Mid-Term Evaluations (MTE) of three forestry programmes: Forestry and Value Chain Development Programme (FORVAC), Participatory Plantation Forestry Programme phase 2 (PFP2), and Tree Outgrowers Support Programme (TOSP).

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.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and other ministries have jointly updated Finland’s Governmental Action Plan on China from 2010. The Action Plan on China 2021 provides an overall assessment of Finland’s relations and cooperation with China. The rapidly evolving international environment as well as need for relevant, up-to-date information within the government and other actors involved in cooperation with China have made it necessary to update the Action Plan. The Action Plan strengthens the consistent approach and policy line on China and does not entail any new policies.

On 27 May 2021, the Government adopted the Report on Development Policy across Parliamentary Terms. The aim was to form a shared overall view on development policy, widely supported by Finnish society.

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 Guideline supports effective implementation of the Finnish Development Policy and its cross-cutting objectives.

In Finland, the participation rate of teacher education students in international mobility is low when compared to students in other faculties. The same tendency applies to teacher education students in other Nordic and European countries. Moreover, the number of teacher education students from Europe seeking mobility to developing countries is very small.

The Responsibility to Protect is the last available measure when a state fails to protect its population against extensive atrocity crimes. The principles were adopted at the UN Summit 15 years ago.

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.

The overall objective of the Project was to extend the electricity grid to rural and peri-urban areas with the aim of reducing poverty. The project has been financed partly by national funds from Honduras and external funding provided by Finland. This evaluation was expected to enable the MFA to assess: 1) Whether the Project was implemented in an appropriate and efficient way; 2) How well it achieved the targets and goals laid out in the Project plan; 3) How sustainable the outcomes of the Project are, including any long-term development impacts; 4) To provide the MFA with a set of lessons learned that can be used in further developing the PIF funding instrument, which has replaced the concessional credit –instrument. This evaluation is a part of a series of evaluations conducted on projects implemented with the terminated Concessional Credit instrument.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs commissioned an impact evaluation on environmental and natural resources projects in Zambia. The objective of the evaluation was to give an independent view on the impact and sustainability of the projects as well as to a general assessment on Finland’s support to environmental and natural resources sectors.

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.

FUTF is EUR 6 million energy efficiency, renewal energy and innovative technologies project in Ukraine. NEFCO commissioned nn independent evaluation of the project at the end of 2020. The project period was originally 2018-2021, but due to delays, it was agreed to extend the implementation until end of 2022.

On 29 October 2020, the Government adopted the Government Report on Finnish Foreign and Security Policy and submitted it to Parliament. The report, being drawn up once during each government term, assesses Finland's foreign and security policy operating environment and defines the goals and priorities for Finland's actions within the next few years.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs commissioned an independent mid-term review on Learning Together project in Ukraine.

The Responsibility to Protect is a concept that underlines the responsibility of every state and the joint responsibility of international community to prevent, suppress and halt mass atrocity crimes.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs supports the development communications and global education projects of Finnish civil society organizations. The funding instrument was for the first time evaluated in summer 2020, with the purpose to assess how the development communications and global education support has achieved its goal of raising awareness of development issues in Finland, how the support has involved and activated citizens to work on development issues, and how this has contributed to the achievement of Finland's development policy objectives.

In 2020, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland commissioned a development policy related study on Africa’s connectivity. The authors of the current report are Ms. Eva Nilsson, PhD candidate at the Hanken School of Economics, Dr. Obert Hodzi at the University of Liverpool, Ms. Neema Komba, PhD candidate at the Hanken School of Economics, Professor Erkki Sutinen at the University of Turku, Dr. Mika Kautonen at Tampere University ,and Senior Researcher, Professor Liisa Laakso at the Nordic Africa Institute.

The purpose of the review was to assess the relevance and effectiveness of International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) in supporting the objectives of Finland’s international human rights and development policies. Special emphasis was placed on how INGOs tackle barriers to realization of human rights through advocacy, and in particular, to systemic challenges.

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.