TradeMark Southern Africa Evaluation

22 November 2013

Upper Quartile is currently working with WYGI to carry out the evaluation of the TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA) programme. The evaluation has been tendered through the DFID Global Evaluation Framework Agreement (GEFA). The team has just come to the end of the mid-term process evaluation which has assessed performance in relation to key programme outputs, anticipated outcomes and sought to test the efficacy of the programmes Theory of Change (TOC). The team is now working closely with DFID, TMSA and other relevant stakeholders to assess the impact of the programme.

 

TMSA is a 5 year, £100 million DFID Southern Africa funded programme that is intended to promote regional integration in Southern and East Africa by working with the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite, its 26 member states, business and civil society organisations. The programme is a component of the UK’s Africa Free Trade initiative which was launched in February 2011 which aims to lower the costs of doing business in Africa by cutting red tape, improving infrastructure and reducing tariffs. TMSA is divided into two main components: GBP67m is allocated to a Tripartite Trust at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) targeted at infrastructure development interventions, with the remaining GBP37m allocated to technical and administrative support. TMSA activities are structured around four pillars;

• Trade policy and trade policy capacity development
• Trade facilitation
• Corridors and infrastructure
• Industrial development.

 

The purpose of the TMSA evaluation is to assess the contribution of the TMSA programme to regional integration and to learn lessons and make recommendations for future projects and programmes. The evaluation aims to improve the performance for the remainder of the TMSA programme and will advise on a potential second phase of the programme or similar future projects. The evaluation team will measure the programme’s impact and will test whether its theory of change is appropriate and valid, by evaluating the;

• Programmes relevance
• Its effectiveness
• Its efficiency
• Its impact
• Its sustainability.

The evaluation will help identify political economy or institutional constraints impeding the achievement of regional integration objectives, which as a result will help policy makers identify and address some of the key political, economic and institutional obstacles.