Ex-post evaluation of complementary measures to budget support to the Republic of Liberia

Systematic and timely evaluation of its programmes and activities is an established priority of the European Commission4. The focus of evaluations is on the assessment of achievements, the quality and the results of Actions in the context of an evolving cooperation policy with an increasing emphasis on result-oriented approaches and the contribution towards the implementation of the SDGs.
From this perspective, evaluations should look for evidence of why, whether or how these results are linked to the EU intervention and seek to identify the factors driving or hindering progress.
Evaluations should provide an understanding of the cause and effect links between: inputs and activities, and outputs, outcomes and impacts. Evaluations should serve accountability, decision making, learning
and management purposes.
The main objectives of this evaluation were to provide the relevant services of the European Union, the interested stakeholders with:

• an overall independent assessment of the past performance of the complementary measures to budget support to be evaluated, paying particular attention to the results measured against the expected objectives; to the various factors that could have hindered the implementation of the projects, including the Ebola crisis; the change/withdrawal of resident advisors; the loss of institutional memory and leadership; and the reasons underpinning such results;
• key lessons learned, conclusions and related recommendations in order to improve current and future Actions.

In particular, this evaluation served to understand the performance of the Actions, the enabling factors and those hampering a proper delivery of results as to inform the planning of the future EU interventions and Actions in the same sector.
This evaluation provided a comparison of the impact of the chosen modality / set-up / institutional arrangements on performance and provide comparative lessons, conclusions and recommendations. The main users of this evaluation are the relevant EU services (the EU Delegation to Liberia, other EU Delegations and services in the Directorate General for International Development Cooperation), and other stakeholders (project implementers, members of the PFM Donor Coordination Group, members of the Budget Support Working Group, EU Member States present in Liberia, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Office of the National Authorising Officer, integrity institutions, civil society, etc.) that were involved in the Actions to be evaluated and continue to work in the area of PFM and statistics.