European Commission Evaluates its Assistance to the Maldives

The European Commission commissioned an independent evaluation of its cooperation programme with the Maldives totaling EUR 26.3 million, for the period 1999 to 2009. A wide cross section of stakeholders including Government officials, civil society, international donor organizations and press, gathered at the presentation of the results of the evaluation, in Malé on 10 October 2010.

Prior to the Tsunami, the EC implemented a single project supporting the empowerment of women. Post Tsunami, the European Commission supported programmes, totaling EUR 16 million, in the areas of livelihood development, construction of housing and public infrastructure, solid waste management, trade and assistance to the  Government in establishing a Public Accounting System. During the presidential and parliamentary elections the European Commission organized technical expert teams to support the Elections Commission and coordinated several election observation teams representing European Union member and non-member countries. Currently, the EC implements programmes to combat drug abuse and adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

As stated by Dr Hussain Niyaaz, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "The EU programme has been well aligned to Government programmes and policies. However there is need to improve the efficiency (in terms of speed), in both the planning and implementation of the programmes in general, and the projects in particular."  Synergies were also built with programmes supported by other stakeholders. Mr Bernard Savage, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Union Delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives elaborated that "The EC aims at strengthening the principles of the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda on Aid Effectiveness by implementing its programmes in co-operation with other donors such as the World Bank and UN Agencies. The programmes carried out under this collaboration have been reviewed as both effective and efficient in general."

The evaluation results indicate that the overall achievement of planned objectives of the individual projects is mixed. While support for the elections, construction of houses for dislocated households, livelihoods, trade and the promotion of a public accounting system was, in general, assessed as successful, the environmental objectives of the solid-waste activities were only partly met.

Lessons learnt suggest the need for more emphasis on supporting key strategic objectives in the country's future programmes so as to improve its sustainability, ownership and impact. Climate change and good governance were seen as promising sectors where the EC can benefit from previous experiences. Other main recommendations addressed better planning quality, the systematic identification and improvement of factors causing delays in implementation and management of future programmes from within the country.