Strategic/Interim Evaluation of Support for Improvement in Governance and Management (SIGMA) Programme

Detailed description of project Back

SIGMA assistance started in 1992 when the EC and the OECD launched the first SIGMA programme to help the Central and Eastern European Countries to modernise their public administrations. SIGMA’s main objective is to assist partner countries to develop public governance systems which are appropriate to a democracy operating under the rule of law and supporting a market economy. The main focus is on horizontal administration systems.

SIGMA’s last evaluation was done in 2007 and covered financing to SIGMA from PHARE Multi- Beneficiary programme1. Since 2007, assistance has been programmed under the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) (contract 2009-2010, contract 2010 -2011, both for the value of € 10m).

The beneficiaries of evaluation will be the IPA beneficiaries in the Western Balkans and Turkey. In particular, the institutions which have benefitted from SIGMA support in the four main areas as described below.

SIGMA provides assistance to beneficiaries in 4 main areas:

• Legal Framework, Civil Service, Administrative Justice and Integrity (Administrative Law, Civil Service, Public Integrity);
• External and Internal Audit and Financial Control (Public Expenditure Management, Public Internal Financial Control, External Audit);
• Public Procurement;
• Policy and Regulatory Systems (Policy-Making and Co-ordination, Regulatory Management, Administrative Environment of Business).

Activities are undertaken on both an individual and multi-country basis, and in response to specific needs and priorities.

The primary objective of this evaluation is to provide relevant findings, conclusions and recommendations to the Commission about the performance of SIGMA´s activities, based on both the evaluator’s assessment and as perceived by the beneficiaries, in the area of Public governance reform/ Public Administration Reform (PAR). The evaluation will cover assistance provided so far under IPA: IPA – Contract 2009-2010, contract 2010-2011 (both for the value of € 10m).

Type of services provided

The mission is undertaken by a team of 3 experts (TL, senior evaluator, junior evaluator). PROMAN provides the services of the TL.

Core services include:

• Mapping SIGMA interventions;
• Assessing the added value of SIGMA and to what extent it responds to IPA beneficiaries’ needs;
• Assessing the extent to which SIGMA interventions are based on sound needs assessments;
• Assessing the extent to which SIGMA interventions are complementary to other interventions financed under IPA;
• Analyse SIGMA’s comparative advantage as perceived by beneficiaries and other stakeholders in the region;
• Assessing the performance of SIGMA interventions in terms of their efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability;
• Providing recommendations for improvement.

PROMAN HQ provides overall backstopping and quality control.