The project consisted of the ex-post evaluation of the Rural Social Development Programme (€19.25-million), which was launched by the EU pursuant to the general EC policy goals for Development Cooperation and the need for sustainable economic and social development.  The purpose of the programme was to enable the rural poor to participate fully and equitably in the sustainable economic development of their communities, aiming at strengthening the development of NGOs and community based organisations (CBOs) through direct assistance to selected Programme Partner Organisations (POs).
 
The evaluation work drew lessons from the Programme for improved future programme implementation, policy refinement and strategic direction based on the overall Programme performance and impact, as well as the Programme’s relevance, equitability, sustainability and replication value.

More specifically, the objective of the evaluation was to determine to what extent the Programme has been successful in achieving its objectives as foreseen in the Programme documentation. The evaluation used a ‘mixed method’ approach combining both quantitative and qualitative methods.  All existing sources of data were exploited, such as previous monitoring mission reports, statistics and reports on Programme implementation, socio-economic data, published statistics and relevant studies.