Evaluation of the Emergency COVID-19 Support Programme of BMZ

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are widespread and affected countries worldwide either directly or indirectly. At the beginning of this evaluation, in December 2021, the pandemic was still ongoing and its challenges are far from being overcome, at both national and international level.

Due to the pandemic, the global economy contracted by 3.5% in 2020, and had only partly recovered by 2021 (World Bank, 2021). This economic recession is leading to an increase in poverty and inequality worldwide. Experts project that the pandemic will undermine positive development trends and achievements made in relation to the SDGs.

To counteract these negative effects, governments around the world launched extensive response programmes. Whereas industrial countries invested an average of 8% of their GDP in 2020 to reduce the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging and developing countries spent less than 4% and 2% respectively of their GDP in the same period (IMF, 2021).

In April 2020, the BMZ launched the CSP with a total volume of EUR 4.7 billion to finance measures to prevent, detect and mitigate the pandemic and its socio-economic consequences.

• Module 1: Contribute to accountability through a rapid assessment of the relevance and efficiency of the CSP with regard to instruments, recipients and content
• Module 2: Perform a sound assessment of the effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and relevance of CSP´s distribution channels and instruments (especially in the area of social protection); to learn for future crises

The objective of the Deval evaluation is to analyse the instruments and measures that were used by the COVID-19 Emergency Response Programme between April 2020 and December 2021.

The Deval evaluation is split into two modules: The first module comprises a portfolio analysis that assesses the relevance and efficiency of the programme. This portfolio analysis is based on the assessment of monitoring data, and on findings from a systematic literature review regarding distribution channels, instruments and topics.

The second module expands on the findings of the first module regarding relevance and efficiency to include the perspective of partner countries. In addition, it will provide findings on the programme’s effectiveness and coherence. Module two will include a broad data collection with not only a standardised virtual survey among all partner countries reached through the CSP, but also qualitative and quantitative surveys in selected case study countries (Burkina Faso, Jordan and Lebanon) as well as a document study.