BGI Consulting performed the evaluation of the implementation of the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway Grants 2009-2014 in Lithuania.
On the basis of the EEA and Norway Grants, three Donor States - Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - provide financial assistance to economically weaker or newly acceded Eastern, Central and Southern European Union (EU) Member States. The overall objectives of the Grants are to contribute to the reduction of economic and social disparities in the EEA and to strengthen bilateral relations between the Donor States and the Beneficiary States. In the programming period 2009-2014, the total of 84 million EUR of the EEA and Norway Grants assistance was allocated to Lithuania. The funding under the Grants assistance was provided for 14 programmes, 12 of which (82.4 million EUR) are managed by Lithuanian institutions.
The main aim of the evaluation was to assess the implementation process, relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the 2009-2014 EEA and Norway Grants in Lithuania and to provide recommendations for improving the implementation of the Grants. The evaluation encompassed three main elements of the Grants: interventions, management system and bilateral relations.
In order to carry out the objectives of the evaluation, different evaluation methods were applied, including analysis of documents, secondary sources and monitoring data, expert and theory-based evaluation, surveys of 7 groups of respondents (institutions in the management and control system of the Grants, Donor Programme Partners, project promoters, Donor Project Partners, applicants not granted funding, NBF project promoters and their partners) and 13 semi-structured interviews with 27 representatives of the institutions in the management and control system of the Grants.
As a result of the evaluation, relevance, coherence, effectiveness and sufficiency of the interventions of 12 programmes under the Grants assistance and efficiency of the management system have been assessed. In addition, the influence of bilateral relations in the framework of the Grants on the changes in the extent of cooperation between Lithuania and the Donor States, development of shared results and changes in mutual knowledge and understanding, has been assessed.
The evaluation results were presented to the stakeholders 12 July 2016 during promotional event in the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania and are provided in the evaluation report.
The evaluation was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania.