The Emergency COVID-19 Support Programme: BMZ Delivered Aid for Partner Countries Quickly and Effectively

Bonn, 27. August 2024 – The COVID-19 pandemic had serious health and socio-economic consequences worldwide, in particular in the countries of the Global South. In response, Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) launched the Emergency COVID-‑19 Support Programme (Corona-Sofortprogramm, CSP) in April 2020. The German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) has meanwhile evaluated the BMZ programme. Their findings demonstrate that this rapidly implemented programme was able to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic. However, the distribution of CSP funding could have been oriented more closely to the vulnerability and affectedness of the partner countries.

The Emergency COVID-19 Support Programme

The COVID-19 pandemic had serious health and socio-economic effects on people and countries worldwide. Extreme poverty rose in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years, pushing an additional 71 million people into extreme poverty. The consequences impacted countries of the Global South in particular, with vulnerable population groups affected particularly severely. In response, Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) launched the Emergency COVID-19 Support Programme (Corona-Sofortprogramm, CSP) in April 2020. The pro­gramme encompassed 4.8 billion euros in funding to finance measures for early detection, preven­tion and mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic and its health and socio-economic consequences in some 80 partner countries of German development cooperation.

Successfully leveraging existing partnerships during the pandemic

Government responses that were aimed at containing the pandemic, such as lockdowns and social distancing rules, posed challenges for local communities and international development cooperation. On the one hand, the established knowledge of local processes and needs that governmental agencies and civil society organisations in the partner countries possessed proved decisive to successfully imple­ment the CSP measures under these difficult circumstances; on the other hand, building the CSP on existing partnerships enabled rapid response to the pandemic. In particular the procurement of in-kind goods was successfully implemented through international organisations (such as the WHO and UNICEF) and partner organisations. In future crises of a similar nature, the BMZ should therefore continue to rely on existing partnerships, allocate funding to international organisations and ensure a larger share of funding is distributed to civil society organisations.

Partner countries' needs were not systematically assessed

In response to the crisis, new projects were set up and existing projects realigned and expanded to implement the COVID-19 measures. However, the CSP funding was not systematically distributed according to the vulnerability and affectedness of the given countries: "Systematic needs analyses were not conducted, which contributed to a timely response at the start of the pandemic, but over the course of the pandemic led to some lesser impacted countries receiving considerable funding," ex­plains the responsible head of department Amélie zu Eulenburg. "In future crises, the vulnerability, affectedness and needs of the partner countries should be factored more strongly into funding distribution."

Crisis programme for the future

The BMZ implemented its Emergency COVID-19 Support Programme under considerable time pres­sure and with restricted working capacity during the pandemic. Temporary cri­sis committees were established to ensure rapid disbursement of funding and implementation of the support measures. However, these committees were not designed to systematically steer the pro­gramme over its entire duration. In the future, structures need to be created that draw lessons learned from the CSP and specify who is responsible for response planning, steering and coordination in crises of a similar nature. This could enable better monitoring and adjustment of response measures during a crisis, retention of lessons learned, and greater consideration of the needs of the partner countries.

Data basis

The evaluation examined the measures of the CSP from 2020 to 2021. A portfolio analysis, literature analysis and country survey were conducted. The evaluation also included interviews and surveys conducted in three case study countries. In the interest of sharing the work and knowledge, the evaluation team collaborated closely with the COVID-19 Evaluation Coalition established by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The complete report on the "Evaluation of the BMZ Emergency COVID-19 Support Programme. Lessons from the Pandemic"  is available at the DEval website.