The European Commission has contracted ADE to undertake a final evaluation of the EU/ACP Microfinance Programme. This was the first EC-managed programme entirely dedicated to Microfinance. It was launched in 2005 on resources from the 9th European Development Fund and targeted African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. It aimed primarily at supporting microfinance institutions through development and promotion of capacity building, transparency and enhanced efficiency.

The evaluation aims to provide an overall independent assessment of the performance of the programme and to establish key lessons learnt for follow-up actions.

The evaluation will start in the first week of April 2011 and should be terminated by early 2012.