The Evaluation Department of the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will commission an evaluation of the Danish Niger Country Programme covering the period from 2009 to 2018. The evaluation criteria will include relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, sustainability and coherence. The evaluation should contribute to documenting experience and lessons learned in relation to Danish cooperation with Niger and fragile state interventions.
The overall vision of the partnership between Denmark and Niger is to support the Government and people of Niger in order to maintain peace and stability, re-enforce democratic values and provide the opportunity for the people to embark on a long term effort to improve living conditions. The current programme (2017-2022) has a budget of 380 000 000 DKK and involves support within governance, water and agriculture/private sector. Niger is a fragile country, and therefore the design of the Country Programme is based on Denmark’s approach for cooperation in fragile and conflict-affected areas. In the absence of a permanent Danish representation in Niger, the programme is managed from the Danish embassy in Ouagadougou.
Denmark has had an uninterrupted collaboration with Niger since 1974 and has especially been working long-term within the areas of democracy and human rights, water supply and agriculture. A considerable portion of the collaboration has had a regional focus in Diffa and Zinder. In governance and human rights, support has been provided to building key democratic institutions and actors, supporting women’s rights, elections and dialogue mechanisms. Denmark has been a major donor in the alignment and harmonisation of support in the water sector contributing to building infrastructure and national capacity. In agriculture, Denmark has supported activities aiming at countering the efforts of desertification and enhancing productivity and processing within specific value chains. The support has also aimed at strengthening farmer organisations.
Denmark has been managing its cooperation programme from a representation office in Niamey, which was closed in 2014. The Danish embassy in Ouagadougou is now administering the programme. The current country policy paper (2016 – 2020) states that the overall vision for Denmark’s engagement to Niger is to support the government and people of Niger in order to maintain peace and stability, re-enforce democratic values and provide the opportunity for the people to embark on a long effort to improve living conditions. The country policy describes how Niger is currently in a state of fragility and it therefore operates with three scenarios. The country programme is designed with a human rights-based approach, including the principles of non-discrimination, participation, transparency, and accountability.
Given the fragile situation that has dominated in Niger throughout the evaluation period and the overall narrative of the Danish cooperation with Niger, the purpose of the evaluation is to assess to which extent Denmark has contributed to maintaining peace, enhancing stability and furthering democratic values in Niger, and whether gains achieved are likely to be sustained.
Consequently, the evaluation should assess the Danish cooperation from a fragile state perspective. Achievements in relation to poverty eradication, food security, economic development, water supply and sanitation should be assessed both on the basis of the objectives initially set for the relevant interventions, but also for their contribution to peace, stability and promotion of democratic values.
The evaluation is planned to be initiated 1.2.2019 and the final evaluation report should be submitted 1.7.2019. The team envisaged will consist of a team leader and 2 sector experts.