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Czech Republic Development Cooperation & Humanitarian Aid Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Evaluation Mandate The Czech Republic was the first Central European country to become an OECD member state in 1995. It was approved as the 26th OECD DAC member in 2013 following a review conducted by the OECD DAC in 2006. The Act on Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid was passed in 2010, which provided the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) with the mandate to co-ordinate Czech development co-operation and conduct evaluations. The Czech Development Agency (CzDA) was also established by the Act. The Development Co-operation Strategy of the Czech Republic 2010–2017 sets out the strategic framework and the functional details of monitoring and evaluation of Czech development assistance. The Strategy outlines that evaluations provide feedback and are to be considered during the preparation of new programmes or projects and to inform decisions on the allocation of additional funds in a given country or sector. The Project Cycle Methodology for Bilateral Development Projects complements the Act and serves as the reference document for evaluation activities. The new Strategy is being produced for the post-2017 period and will replace the current one.
Responsibility and scope of activities The evaluation function is embedded in the Department of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid. This Department comprises three units: the Unit for Bilateral Development Cooperation, the Unit for Multilateral Development Cooperation, and the Humanitarian Aid and Evaluation Unit. The Desk Officer for Evaluation is responsible for evaluation of the projects and programmes carried out by the CzDA and the MFA, as well as by other relevant partners. However, as all projects and programmes evaluations are outsourced and internal human and financial resources are limited, the Desk Officer’s responsibility is primarily the management of evaluations of individual or sector-specific groups of projects, programmes or sectors of bilateral development co-operation. The evaluations performed for strategic purposes are also partly conducted by external consultants.
Organisational Structure and Reporting Lines The Desk Officer for evaluation reports to the Head of Department, who reports to MFA senior management. The Council for Development Cooperation ensures inter-ministerial co-ordination and coherence of the goals and priorities of development co-operation and other instruments of government policy. The Council sets up Working Groups for various specific activities in development co-operation, including evaluations. The Evaluation Plan is prepared annually in collaboration with the MFA, the Council and the CzDA to reflect the policy needs and management priorities of Czech bilateral ODA. The Evaluation Plan is approved by the Council and by MFA senior management. The Desk Officer is the focal contact point for external consultants.
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Central/main evaluation units
Programme/operational units
Other units with evaluation functions
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
High level policy groups or ministries
Reporting line
Lines of communication
Council for Development Cooperation
Department of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid Head of the Dept.
Czech Development Agency (CzDA)
Unit of Humanitarian Aid and Evaluation Desk Officer
External Consultants
Types of Evaluation • Thematic/cross-cutting evaluations Sector-wide evaluations • Programme evaluations • Project/activity evaluations
The OECD DAC criteria are applied, as well as cross-cutting principles of the Czech ODA. In 2014, the MFA conducted four sector evaluations of development activities, one project evaluation and one meta-evaluation, which analysed 20 evaluation reports from 2012 to 2013.
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Resources The evaluations have a separate budget line and are prepared as part of the Annual Plan for Development Cooperation. The separate budget line provides for evaluation tenders. CZK 5 million is allocated per year in 2016 and 2017. The Desk Officer is the only employee working in the field of evaluation, although evaluation is not their only responsibility.
Snapshot of evaluation resources Czech Republic
Head / Director / Assistant Director
Professional evaluation staff EUR 85 000 0.44% of the ODA budget (2015) 5
Principles of Evaluation Average evaluations produced per year
Independence The Department responsible for the evaluation function and the implementation agency CzDA are separate departments that report into the same management structure. Although there is no structural independence, external consultants are contracted based on public tenders. Evaluators are required to provide a written declaration of independence. Competence and capacity building When the Czech Republic began undertaking evaluations, in order to strengthen evaluation capacity, a Czech official was seconded to the UNDP Bratislava Regional Office. The capacity of evaluation is now being built through training, as well as the learning-bydoing approach. Moreover, general evaluation training for local evaluators is provided by the Czech Evaluation Society (EPDET) in collaboration with a specialised NGO (Czech Forum for Development Cooperation financially supported by the MFA).
Transparency and participation To enhance accountability and transparency, all evaluation reports on individual ODA projects are published on the MFA website in Czech and English. Evaluation plans are published on the MFA website. The evaluation plan for 2016 has recently been approved and published. Information on ODA projects per country, co-operation arrangements with other donors, and the legislation framework are made public through the MFA website. Social media and blogging are also used as a means of dissemination.
Knowledge management Evaluation results are published and shared via internal communications channels, the MFA website, reference groups within the MFA, and presentations. The evaluation reports are forwarded by the evaluation unit to the MFA management and the Council for Development Cooperation. Moreover the evaluation unit produces an annual report of evaluations for the preceding year and presents the findings to the MFA. When relevant, the MFA and the CzDA directly implement recommendations from evaluations, and adjustments are made to the Project Cycle Methodology and other relevant documents. All relevant participants in partner countries are also informed via e-mail about the publication of evaluation reports/ summaries on the MFA website in English.
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Co-ordination with donors and country recipients One joint evaluation has been conducted with the MFA of the Slovak Republic.
Quality assurance To ensure quality, a Reference Group is organised for each evaluation. It consists of representatives from the MFA, the CzDA, as well as experts from other Ministries (related to the evaluation), and an independent expert on evaluation methodology (Czech Evaluation Society). In addition to the Reference Group, the Working Group for evaluations under the Council for Development Cooperation provides comments and general meetings with the Council itself take place at the end of the evaluation cycle. A meta-evaluation of the evaluation system was carried out in 2014, as well as an independent peer review by the Czech Evaluation Society. Note to reader: The section at the beginning of Part II entitled “Introduction and key for the member profiles� provides explanatory notes on the profiles.
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