Evaluation of the EU support in the area of statistics

The scope of the evaluation covered five different contracts, implemented throughout different timeframes and elaborating on a somewhat broad range of areas in statistics. These included the following:

• Contract 1: Improving Structural Capacity of the Serbian Statistical Office in view of Approximating European Statistical System (ESS) Requirements (IPA 2007)
• Contract 2: Assistance for the Serbian Statistics in view of Approximating European Statistical System (ESS) Requirements (IPA 2011)
• Contract 3: Strengthening the Serbian Statistical System by Upgrading Methodologies and Standards and by the appliance of Good Practice (IPA 2012)
• Contract 4: EU for Development of Statistics in Serbia (IPA 2018)
• Contract 5: Developing efficient and sustainable statistical system in line with European statistical system (IPA 2016)

The overall objective of the evaluation was to provide an independent assessment of the performance of EU interventions in the area of statistics in Serbia between 2009 and 2022; with specific focus on results achieved vis-à-vis original objectives and the factors that contributed to those results. In addition, the evaluation drew on the performance of the relevant contracts and developments in the overall sector to identify key lessons learned, conclusions and related recommendations in order to improve current and future interventions. The specific objectives of the evaluation were:

• to understand the performance of the intervention and the reasons behind it in order to maximise its potential to achieve the expected results during the residual implementation time
• to understand the performance of the intervention and the reasons behind it in order to inform the planning of the future EU interventions in the same sector.
• to understand whether gender equality and women’s empowerment, environment and adaptation to climate change 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 intervention, its governance and monitoring.