Evaluation of the European Stability Initiative (ESI) Project 2015-2021
EU membership is a prospect for several of the Western Balkan countries. The road towards EU accession consists of negotiations and dialogue between relevant key EU stakeholders and the governments of countries aspiring to become EU member states. Such dialogues and negotiations revolve around reforms and standards that the EU has set out as requirements for eventually acquiring membership status. The road towards EU enlargement is marked by challenges both within the EU, as well as within the countries aspiring to become member countries. While the Western Balkan countries continue to progress towards EU accession – at different paces – several challenges to democracy and the rule of law persist, such as corruption, flaws in the judicial system, as well as organised crime. Political polarisation is widespread in the region, while the space for civil society is shrinking in many of the countries. In the region, Sweden is present with bilateral as well as regional programs through the Results Strategy for Sweden’s Reform Cooperation with Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and Turkey 2014-2021.
Nordic Consulting Group will assess one of the regional interventions supported by Sida between 2015 and 2021. The intervention is implemented by the European Stability Initiative (ESI). This evaluation will serve as an input to help Sida and its partner ESI to assess progress of the on-going intervention and to learn from what works well and less well, as well as to formulate recommendations on how its management team can improve and adjust the intervention’s design and implementation.
Evaluation of Gender Budgeting in Ukraine project 2013-2020
Sweden supports reforms in Ukraine under the Results Strategy for Sweden’s Reform Cooperation with Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and Turkey 2014-2020, which will apply until the end of 2021 by the Swedish government decision. Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is an approach to budgeting which places the needs of different groups, women and men, girls and boys, at the center of decision making. Gender budgeting has been internationally recognized as a tool by which we can ensure that real needs of people are recognized and addressed through budget policies. Gender budgeting also makes sure that political commitments to gender equality translate into reality. Sweden supported Niras for the implementation of the project “Gender Budgeting in Ukraine” Project (2013-2020). Apart from the project supported by Sweden, other donors have also been working with the gender budgeting in Ukraine. In 2018, UN Women, GRB in Ukraine project and NDI signed a letter of cooperation in order to work together and achieve sustainable results in GRB implementation in Ukraine.
Nordic Consulting Group - Sweden will implement this assignment by providing the Embassy and its partners with an input to upcoming discussions concerning the preparation of a continued support to gender budgeting reform in Ukraine as well as strategic programming by the Embassy during Sweden´s next strategy for reform cooperation with Eastern Europe 2021-2027.
Data analysis of Danish support to Education in Emergencies
The Danish Education in Emergencies Alliance (Alliance) is a new initiative spearheaded by Save the Children Denmark and Plan International Denmark. The Alliance seeks to inspire more political commitment to education in emergencies and protracted crises by modelling an integrated approach to mobilise a broad group of stakeholders including Member of Parliament, Civil Society, UN organisations, Private Foundations, as well as leaders from the private sector. The Alliance comes at a time when an estimated 175 mio. children worldwide continue to be affected by school-closures as a result of COVID-19, and the number of the internally displaced persons has passed 50 mio., many of whom are children. In other words, the need to bolster Education in Emergencies is greater than ever before, if we do not want to lose a generally of children.
Denmark has historically been a strong supporter of Education in Emergencies and continue be known as such. However, funding trends and modalities have shifted rapidly the past ten years, and the majority of Danish aid to education in emergencies is thus channelled through Education Cannot Wait and the Global Partnership for Education, both of which Danida is among the top donors. Additional funding to EiE is channelled through partnerships with UN agencies (namely UNICEF and UNHCR), as well as Strategic Partnership Agreements with Danish CSOs such as Save the Children and Plan International. At the same time, a number of large private Foundations in Denmark have also increased their support to EiE, either directly or by supporting school-based interventions in other sectors that influence education outcomes. The shift in funding, combined with increased use of multi-year flexible funding has made it difficult to track funding specifically to EiE. Consequently, while Denmark signals a political commitment to EiE, it has been challenging to track the exact funding level.
Nordic Consulting Group Partners Cecilia Linn Hansen (data analyst), Frank Runchel (QA), and Dorte Busch (extended QA) will implement this assignment by developing a financial baseline of Denmark’s combined financial support to EiE.
Midterm Review of Organisation Strategies for Denmark’s engagement with UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women 2018-2022
Nordic Consulting Group recently completed the midterm evaluation of Denmark’s Organisation Strategies 2018-2022,with UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women. Ahead of the UN General Assembly in September 2021, and a new generation of UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women corporate Strategic Plans that Denmark’s priorities align with, the review assessed progress in pursuing the priority areas and results defined in these Organisation Strategies, including challenges – such as those impacting the work of the agencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The review was furthermore guided by Danish development priorities as stated in The World We Share, Denmark’s new strategy for development cooperation
Anton Baaré led the review supported by David Andersson.
Evaluation of the Peace and Stabilisation Fund (PSF)
The Danish Peace and Stabilisation Fund (PSF) was set up in 2010 as an inter-ministerial, flexible funding mechanism aimed at contributing to enhanced peace and stability in some of the world’s conflictual “hotspots.” A comprehensive, “whole of government” approach was adopted to manage the fund, which involves the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Since the establishment of the fund a wide range of mostly 3-year programmes have been carried out across Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe with a diverse set of partners. The PSF is managed by an inter-ministerial steering committee, chaired in rotation between the MoFA and the MoD. This committee approves and provides overall supervision of the programmes of the Fund. A joint secretariat (Samsek) with staff from MoFA and MoD supports implementation and administration. The programmes under the PSF are managed and monitored by Danish embassy teams and MoFA/MoD units.
Given the considerable expansion in activities since 2010 and the importance of continued peace and stabilisation efforts in numerous conflict zones around the world, it has been decided that a follow up evaluation of the PSF will be undertaken. Danish initiatives within the humanitarian, development and peace “nexus” as well as the recent strategic shift towards “doing development differently” will constitute important contextual frameworks for this assessment. Thus, strengthening the strategic coherence as well as the flexibility of development engagements - including bilateral “country programmes”, humanitarian assistance and support to multilateral and international organisations - are intended to ensure the best ways of organizing and implementing Danish development cooperation.
Nordic Consulting Group Partners Anne-Lise Klausen (team leader), Ayla Olesen Yurtaslan (research analyst), and Per Kirkemann (QA manager) will implement this assignment in consortium with Ecorys (UK). They will provide an in-depth analysis of three case studies of PSF programmes as well as difficulties encountered and opportunities arising.