Year:         1999
Client:      Liaison Committee of Development NGOs to the European Union
Country:   Members of the EU
Value TA:  ?19,000

In order to facilitate access to EU funds for development cooperation for NGOs in member states of the EU, a programme was initiated in 1997 designed to assist NGOs in completing the required documents. The programme supported advisor(s) in the member states who in turn supported the NGOs and provided training to them. The evaluation consisted of a field part in 4 countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Italy) and the use of questionnaires for NGOs, advisors and staff functioning on national NGO platforms in all Member States. The evaluation-team had to be fielded in an incredibly short time as the support programme had been discontinued and many of the staff that had been involved were looking for other jobs or had found these already.

It was found that the support programme played an important and positive role in assisting developmental NGOs in meeting the application and reporting requirements of the European Commission. This applied especially for the smaller NGOs and those just entering this field. Also it appeared that the individual staff members of the Commission responsible for NGO support did not all use the same rules in a same manner. Many of the financial rules and procedures were experienced as cumbersome and bureaucratic.