Evaluation Report (Unedited) | Executive summary of Terms of Reference
Terms of Reference in English and Spanish

At the request of the GEF Council, the Evaluation Office conducted an evaluation of the GEF support to the National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) program. The evaluation was conducted fully and independently by the GEF Evaluation Office with support from the GEF Secretariat, GEF Agencies, governments, and civil society organizations. Findings and recommendations from this evaluation will be presented to the GEF Council, at its November 2011 meeting. A link to the unedited version of the evaluation report is provided below. The final evaluation report is expected by the end of 2011.

NCSA Background
The GEF Council approved in May 2001 funding to conduct NCSAs for countries to initiate a self-assessment of their capacity needs to address global environmental issues (with a focus on biological diversity, climate change, and land degradation) and prepare a national capacity action plan. Since 2002 and as of the end of 2010, the GEF has provided about $28.7 million for 153 NCSAs (out of 165 eligible countries. UNDP implemented 76% of these NCSA projects, 23% by UNEP and one by the World Bank. The 119 countries that have completed their NCSAs, 23 have received a second phase support from the GEF to implement priorities identified in their NCSAs, valued at about $12 million from the GEF.

Evaluation
The evaluation provides the GEF Council and others in the GEF with lessons, experiences, and recommendations coming from the implementation of NCSAs as inputs to the development of a new GEF strategy on capacity development. The evaluation had three areas of focus: relevance, efficiency, and results (and their sustainability). Each of these areas was developed through a series of key questions and sub-questions. The framework for the evaluation was based on the theory and key principles behind the development of NCSAs, their objectives and expected results.
 

The key questions in each of the three focus areas of the NCSA evaluation:

Conclusions and Recommendations
The evaluation identifies the NCSA initiative as a central part of the GEF strategic framework for capacity development and as the first assessment of environmental capacity needs and capacity development priorities at the national level with a global reach. The evaluation found the NCSA initiative to be highly relevant to the national sustainable development agendas and to the capacity development strategies of implementing agencies and of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). The evaluation also identified room for improvement regarding the NCSA’s “One-size-fits-all” approach, the inclusiveness of participatory processes as well as the incorporation of NCSA results into GEF and Conventions programming and strategy. Based on these conclusions, the evaluation recommends the integration of NCSA experiences and lessons learned in a new GEF strategic framework for capacity development as well as the further use and dissemination of NCSA knowledge products.

Evaluation Report:

•  Unedited version of the evaluation report

 Terms of Reference of the National Capacity Self-Assessment (NCSA) Evaluation:

• Executive summary of Terms of Reference 
•  Terms of Reference in English and Spanish

More information on the work of GEF on capacity development can be found in

• the GEF web site 

and specifically on NCSAs:

• NCSA Final Reports and Action Plans of projects implemented by UNDP  
•   Cross-Cutting Capacity Development Assessment Reports
• National Capacity Self-Assessments: Results and Lessons Learned for Global Environmental Sustainability