Evaluation of the NTF II Programme

Detailed description of project:

The Netherlands Trust Fund Phase II (NTF II) is a programme funded by the Netherlands’ Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI). The NTF II partnership agreement was signed on 25 March 2009 and aims at achieving the overall objective of creating sustainable exporter competitiveness in selected potential export sectors and selected CBI partner countries. This objective is to be achieved through enhanced capacity of Trade Support Institutions to provide effective services to SMEs - and by addressing value chain constraints. NTF II contributes to building export competitiveness of specific sectors and to equiping the institutions to carry on activities after programme end.

As indicated in the ToRs developed by the ITC, the purpose of the NTF II Evaluation reads as follow:
The evaluation will explore and evaluate the achievements of NTF II programme at the outcome level with regard to creating sustainable exporter competitiveness in the five beneficiary countries. The  present evaluation will focus on the purposes of accountability and governance/management. It will  be followed in 2014 by a second evaluation that will focus on impact issues. Therefore, the present  evaluation should pave the way for the 2014 final evaluation. The evaluation will in particular:
• Account for the  achievements of programme outcomes and outputs as per the Programme/projects Results Based Management Framework (RBM), and gauge the main programme results in terms of cost-benefit;
• Analyze the cooperation model between beneficiaries and partner institutions in the field, [Centre for Imports Promotion (CBI)], and ITC from the point of view of integration and cohesion of the trade-related technical assistance in response to their priority needs;
• Make recommendations regarding the programme structure and contents, taking into consideration a possible extension and expansion of the programme to other countries;
• Make recommendations regarding the governance structure developed and implemented for the programme by ITC and CBI, and the programme management structure in Geneva and in the field (in particular through a comparative analysis of the five NTF II countries), and the quality assurance process.

The present evaluation assesses the Netherlands’ Trust Fund Programme, or NTF II (April 2009 to March 2013). The programme is the successor of the NTF I programme. These were
funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI).
NTF II has been designed on the basis of the main strategic conclusions, lessons learned and recommendations of the evaluation of the predecessor program NTF I which insisted on the NTF II being developed according to the following lines: Increasing potential of ownership of the programme by beneficiaries; Professionalization of the reporting formats; Regular, structured and documented meetings regarding governance; Exchange knowledge and expertise with CBI; The use of local (certified) consultants; Delivery through collaborative work  programmes with partners; and, The choice of a specific sector for each targeted country based on indepth contextual analysis.