Mid-term Evaluation of the Trade and Domestic Market Enhancement Programme (TDMEP) (EuropeAid FWC Lot 10 2016/381709/1)

The main objectives of the project were to provide the relevant external co-operation services of the European Union, the Government of Egypt and, when appropriate, the wider public with:

• An overall independent assessment of the performance of the Trade and Domestic Market Enhancement Programme (ENPI/2011/022767), paying particularly attention to the results of the project against its objectives;
• Key lessons and recommendations in order to improve the current and any future actions.

The key lessons and recommendations of this assignment served to inform the EU Delegation and the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Egypt on the state of implementation of the Programme and provided inputs for decision makers on potential remedial actions to increase the impact of the programme interventions for the remaining period of implementation of the Financing Agreement.

The general objective of the Trade and Domestic Market Enhancement Programme (TDMEP) was to assist the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the implementation and execution of key policy reforms in order to sustain economic development and Egypt’s further integration into the global and regional economy. The specific objectives were to implement trade and domestic market related reforms that would i) increase Egypt's benefit from international trade policy and agreements ii) foster industrial development, in particular improve the quality infrastructure necessary for trade liberalisation. The programme was designed to be implemented through two separate but closely interlinked components, for a budget of EUR 20 million:

• Component 1: Foreign trade, export promotion and trade agreements;
• Component 2: Industrial development and quality infrastructure.

The Mid-term Evaluation assessed the implementation of the programme using the standard DAC evaluation criteria, namely: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency. The evaluation team provided observations on expected sustainability and impact of the programme based on their assessment of the implementation record thus far.

In addition, the evaluation assessed two EU specific evaluation criteria:

• The EU added value of the programme, both regarding its design and implementation;
• The coherence of the programme itself, with the EU strategy in the Neighbourhood region and more particularly in Egypt.

• Analysed and assessed relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and EU added value
• Described the development co-operation context
• Analysed the intervention logic/logical framework
• Responded to each evaluation question stating the information gathered and their limitations identified
• Coordinated stakeholder Group Meeting with 60 persons