Short description
The focus of the evaluation will be on the use of trust funds from a Nordic donor perspective with focus on the World Bank, the UNMPTF and the African Development Bank. The evaluation will contain a comparative perspective in which the engagement and management of the individual Nordic donors’ support to the trust funds will be assessed. The evaluation will also assess to which extent the Nordic donors coordinate their financial support and overall engagement in multilateral trust funds, and at which coordination strategies are applied. In addition, it will be explored whether the approach to coordination differs between different multilateral organizations and different types of trust funds. The evaluation will also explore if the trust funds are relevant to Nordic development priorities, to which extent there is documentation about results and how it is reported and if the administration of the funds is cost efficient.
The focus of the evaluation will be both accountability and learning. Based on DAC’s evaluation criteria, the evaluation will assess the Nordic support to multilateral trust funds, including a comparative perspective and will in particular focus on the anticipated and achieved results of this support. In addition, the evaluation will provide recommendations on the use of this instrument in the future.
The evaluation will comprise three parts:
(1) A descriptive part which will cover the whole multilateral trust fund portfolio of the Nordic donors. The descriptive part will provide an overview of the total Nordic support to multilateral trust funds in the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the UNMPTF, including different types of trust funds with which the Nordic countries have engaged (e.g. small and large trust funds; single-donor and different multi-donor trust funds). To the extent information is available, the overview will cover support provided since 2004 and will address questions like overall trends, distribution across multilateral organizations and sectors and similarities and comparisons of the Nordic countries use of trust funds.
(2) A part which will include an assessment of a sample of jointly supported multilateral trust funds by Nordic donors. This will comprise multilateral trust funds in the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the UNMPTF, which have received support from at least three Nordic Donors (for AfDB it will be at least two donors) since 2013. Based on this sample of multilateral trust funds, which is expected to comprise app. 100 trust funds this part of the evaluation will address questions like differences in governance and management structures, types of earmarking, donor composition, anticipated and achieved results, and comparison and coordination between the Nordic donors.
(3) A third part with an in-depth assessment of a limited number of trust funds among the jointly supported trust funds mentioned above. This part of the evaluation will, similar to the second part, cover the last 10 years. The methodology for selection of trust funds for this part of the evaluation will be defined during the inception phase of the evaluation, and it is envisaged that selection criteria will be for instance thematic, trust fund type and/or sectorial (e.g. humanitarian, peace and transition and/or climate trust funds ), based on the analytical approach. This part of the evaluation will go more in depth in addressing issues related to Nordic management of and engagement in multilateral trust funds, including coordination issues and anticipated and achieved results, the trust funds monitoring and evaluation systems, trust fund administration and management issues.