Thematic Evaluation Report: ZEAT-BEAD and SORUDEV - February 2016

The objective of this evaluation is to make an overall independent assessment of the performance of the South Sudan Rural Development (SORUDEV) and Zonal Effort for Agricultural Transformation – Bahr-el-Ghazal Agricultural Development (ZEAT-BEAD) programmes under 3 thematic headings, namely: Agricultural Extension; Rural Finance (primarily in the form of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs)); and Value Chain Development. Based on this assessment, the mission identifies key lessons learnt and proposes practical recommendations for follow-up actions, which could feed into the remaining period of these interventions (or the design process for a successor programme). 

The study applies the 5 evaluation criteria of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), i.e. relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. Given the timing of this evaluation in ZEAT-BEAD’s life span, much reliance has been placed on the progress of inception activities.