Title:
Final evaluation of the ‘Support to the agriculture sector/food security’ action:
Country:
Eritrea
Client and Donor:
The European Union Delegation to the State of Eritrea/ EU, and Project Management
Period:
July – 2019 to March 2020
Description:
The overall objective of the Programme was to contribute to poverty reduction through sustainable socioeconomic growth in rural areas and enhanced sustainability of rural
livelihood. The specific objective was to enhance food security development through increased agricultural production and productivity and improve food access at household level. In line with the financing agreement, the Programme aimed to achieve the following results:
• Result1: Crop and Livestock production and productivity is increased through secured access to water for irrigation and adapted soil and water conservation techniques;
• Result2: Food access is secured through development of generating income activities mostly related to additional crop and livestock production;
• Result 3: Food security programme is better planned and managed through capacity building intervention at central and regional levels.
The main objectives of this evaluation were to provide the relevant services of the European Union, the
interested stakeholders and the wider public with:
o an overall independent assessment of the past performance of the “Support to the agricultural sector/food security in Eritrea” action, paying particular attention to its results measured against its expected objectives; and the reasons underpinning such results;
o key lessons learned, conclusions and related recommendations in order to improve current and future Actions.
In particular, this evaluation will serve to understand the performance of the Action, its enabling factors and those hampering a proper delivery of results, so as to inform the planning of the future EU interventions and Actions in the same sector.
The main users of this evaluation will be the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Eritrea and other stakeholders of the Action, such as the Ministry of National Development/NAO office, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Local Government, who have been involved in the implementation of
the Action to be evaluated.
The evaluation assessed the Action using the five standard DAC evaluation criteria, namely: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and early signs of impact. In addition, the evaluation assessed two EU specific evaluation criteria:
o the EU added value (the extent to which the Action brings additional benefits to what would have resulted from Member States’ interventions only);
o the coherence of the Action itself, with the EU strategy in the Eritrean agriculture and food security sector (including its governance) and with other EU policies and Member State actions, national programmes and UN agencies implemented programmes.
The evaluation also considered whether gender, environment and climate change, as well as resilience and conflict sensitivity, were mainstreamed; the relevant SDGs and their interlinkages were identified; the principle of Leave No-One Behind and the rights-based approach methodology was followed in the identification/formulation documents and the extent to which they have been reflected in the implementation of the Action, its governance and monitoring.