Reform Partnerships with Selected Countries in Africa
The BMZ has established reform partnerships with selected African countries with the aim of contributing to the implementation of the German Marshall Plan with Africa and the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) initiative. The evaluation strives to assess the experiences up to now with six African countries and support the further conceptual design of the reform partnerships.
The BMZ’s reform partnerships with selected African countries mark a new orientation in German development policy. They are intended to establish better framework conditions in the partner countries for investment and private-sector engagement in order to improve the employment opportunities, incomes and general living conditions of the local population.
The evaluation is investigating whether the reform partnerships constitute an adequate and contemporary cooperation model. To this end, it is analysing the relevance and coherence of the cooperation approach of the reform partnerships, and establishing to what extent the two key components of promoting and demanding are put into practice and actually help to trigger reforms in the partner countries.
Background
The readjustment of German development cooperation with Africa is taking place in an international context, in which stakeholders have been attempting for some time now to increase the cooperation between Europe and Africa as partners. In view of the fact that general budget support with African countries was ended at the beginning of the 2010s, the reform partnerships constitute a new attempt to support the independent development of African states primarily using financial cooperation funds. The cooperation approach of the reform partnerships that was initiated in 2017 has not yet been evaluated.
Objectives
The main objective of the evaluation is to contribute to learning processes in the BMZ. In light of the parliamentary elections of September 2021, the evaluation strives to inform the BMZ whether and to what extent the cooperation approach of the reform partnerships is a relevant and coherent form of cooperation. It also aims to establish initial effects arising from the reform partnerships with a view to political decisions and administrative action, and to gauge the potential effectiveness of the two mechanisms of “ownership” and “conditionality”.
Methods
The evaluation uses a theory-based approach that attempts to reconstruct how the cooperation approach of the reform partnerships works based on case examples in which several interrelated intervention areas are intended to have an effect either sequentially or simultaneously. To achieve this, the evaluation concentrates on analysing the impact processes as comprehensively as possible and subsequently identifying highly effective mechanisms. The specific data collection methods are of a qualitative manner (country case studies, interviews with experts, document analysis).
Contact
Helge Roxin
Phone: +49 (0)228 336907-937
E-mail: helge.roxin@DEval.org
Dr Stefan Leiderer
Phone: +49 (0)228 336907-940
E-mail: stefan.leiderer@DEval.org
