Evaluation of the European Commission's co-operation with Honduras

This evaluation assesses the European Commission's co-operation with Honduras over the period 2003-2009. It aims at analysing its relevance and performance, and to draw lessons for improving the current and future strategy and interventions in this country. The evaluation focused on support in the areas of Natural Resource Management and Environment, Food Security, Education (incl. vocational training), Public Security, and Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development (LRRD) including coordination with ECHO's humanitarian activities. Specific attention was further given to budget support and to the overall mix of aid modalities.The evaluation is structured around Evaluation Questions (EQs) covering different aspects of the Commission’s strategy in Honduras. All the DAC criteria are covered by this set of questions: relevance, effectiveness, impact, efficiency and sustainability. A cooperation key sector analysed was the secondary vocational education training (national reform of the education system). The cooperation (and the study) focused as well on the national programme for fight against poverty, food security, environment and public security. Crosscutting issues and coherence are also covered in order to complement the scope of analysis. Answers to these EQs are based on a reconstructed intervention logic, an analysis of the documents collected, a specific analysis of a representative sample of projects, and on interviews with Commission officials, national authorities and beneficiaries. These answers aim at developing relevant conclusions and recommendations. RELATED TO ENVIRONMENT Sustainable management of natural resources is a focal sector for EC cooperation in both the 2002-2006 and the 2007-2013 Country Strategy Papers (CSPs). The EC has provided direct or indirect support in this field through various interventions, but primarily through the €34m FORCUENCAS and the €25m PROCORREDOR programmes, committed in 2001 and 2006 respectively. Another programme was in the pipeline: the MOSEF on the modernisation of the forestry sector. A NGO project (€1,14m on water and forests) was further added to the evaluation sample for in-depth study. The evaluation responded to two specific evaluation questions focusing on natural resource management and the environment: • The first evaluation question tackled the EC’s approach to natural resources at strategic level, assessing the relevance and coherence of the Natural Resource Management (NRM) strategies applied by the EC-funded interventions, how these have co-evolved along with the NRM approaches followed by Honduran public and non-public sector actors, coordination with other donors, and the effect of EC interventions on public strategies. It also assesses the relations between NRM, Food Security and Decentralisation. • The second evaluation question addressed the EC’s interventions in terms of achievements, mainly in terms of impact and sustainability. It analysed the extent to which the EC contributed to strengthening the management of natural resources. It also assessed the evolution of the EC strategy towards a stronger insistence on information and coordination between actors at different levels, central and local. The shift in the EC implementation approach was also taken into account. Additionally, it also covered coherence with other EC cooperation interventions. The answers to the two questions were used for formulating the overall conclusions and recommendations for EC support to Honduras.


Project Details
Country HONDURAS
Start date 2010.05.10
End date 2012.06.30
Client EC
Sector EVALUATION
Sub-sector Country/Regional
Ref. ADE A379-08