Country programmes have produced results also during the pandemic

Long-term nature of cooperation and flexibility are behind the success of Finland’s country programmes.

Finland engages in long-term bilateral cooperation with developing countries on the basis of 13 country programmes or regional programmes. In 2019-2021, the country programmes accounted for 19 per cent of Finland's official development cooperation.

The country programmes define the priorities of cooperation, performance targets and key cooperation projects. Progress is continuously monitored and the results are reported on an annual basis. A synthesis report, which gives an overall picture of the performance of the country programme modality, is prepared on the basis of the country level annual reports.

The success of the work is assessed according to how well the immediate (output) and long-term (outcome) performance targets are met.

The achievement of immediate performance targets improved steadily between 2016 and 2019, but the performance level decreased significantly in 2020. The main reasons for this decline were the COVID-19 pandemic and conflicts in partner countries, which have delayed and changed the implementation of ongoing projects and, in particular, the preparation of new projects.

To some extent, the same change is also reflected in long-term performance targets. The pandemic and conflicts have had a significant impact on operating environments in partner countries and have caused backsliding in some development trends. For example, school closures further exacerbated the learning crisis, especially in Finland’s poorest partner countries. The situations in Afghanistan and Myanmar escalated to the extent that interim action plans instead of country programmes were formulated for both countries.

On the other hand, also during the pandemic, in 2020-2021, approximately 70-80 per cent of both immediate and long-term performance targets were met either well or satisfactorily. This means that at least 60 per cent of these targets were met.

Key factors behind the good performance were the long-term nature of cooperation and the utilisation of expertise and political dialogue in ways suitable for different forms of cooperation. Adjusting cooperation to the changed circumstances has been necessary, and it will also create preconditions for better results in the future. On the other hand, adjustment measures have slowed down the implementation of projects.

Today, more and more cooperation takes place in fragile contexts. In 2019-2020, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs commissioned an external evaluation of the country programmes in fragile contexts. The evaluation recommended that the country programmes take unexpected changes in the operating environment as well as cooperation between development cooperation, humanitarian aid and peacebuilding better into consideration in the future.

Together with the new country programmes adopted in 2021, the first comprehensive country strategies that take into account not only development cooperation but also the objectives of foreign and security policy and economic relations, were published. At the same time, the flexibility of the country programmes and the projects included in them to react to changes in the operating environment was increased.

Finland’s country programmes

Covid-19 and conflicts weakened the results

  • Targets have been successfully achieved = more than 80% of the year's targets have been met, the programme is making good progress and there is no need to change the plans
  • Targets have been met moderately well = 60-80% of the year’s targets have been met, generally the programme is making good progress but changes are needed/the programme should be speeded up
  • Targets have been unsatisfactorily achieved = 0-60% of the year's targets have been met, the programme is not progressing as expected and substantial corrections are needed
  • Cannot be reported because the programme has not been launched or has ended during the country strategy period

Download data file (immediate results)

Download data file (long-term results)

 
Source: Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Adaptation of the country programme to crises: Ethiopia  

Ethiopia has been hit simultaneously by the COVID-19 pandemic, drought and civil war. The number of internally displaced people within the country has risen to millions and many others need emergency aid. Finland has responded to the situation by making rapid changes to the implementation of the country programme, while still adhering to long-term sector objectives. 
As a result of the crises, humanitarian assistance was increased and the basic functions and achieved results of bilateral projects were secured as far as possible. The funds were allocated to immediate needs, the security of project staff was given priority and the planning of new bilateral projects was suspended. In addition, the pace of decision-making was accelerated, the monitoring of the use of funds was further improved, and payments were divided into several smaller parts.T

The adjustment measures concerned all cooperation:

Rural development 
  • The implementation areas of the projects were changed due to the security situation. 
  • Funds were directed to the needs of internally displaced persons and to humanitarian assistance.
Water services
  • Emphasis was placed on hygiene and such things as water supply at health stations during the pandemic.
  • Support was allocated to refugee camps for internally displaced people and areas affected by drought.
Education
  • Basic education funding was allocated to the reconstruction of schools and school-level activities.
  • One-off support has been providing to education in crisis situations together with UNICEF with the aim of getting school drop-outs in conflict areas to attend school again. One means used to achieve this has been offering school meals.
     

Although the conflict and pandemic slowed down the implementation of the projects and prevented access to some areas, and infrastructure was also destroyed during the war, the adjustment made it possible to minimise the damage and provide support to the groups in most vulnerable situations. The projects were ultimately able to function and produce results well in light of the situation.