Final evaluation for EU Contribution to Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) in Nepal (2023)

The EU "Contribution to Agriculture and Rural Development in Nepal (CARD)" programme was designed to support the Government of Nepal in implementing its Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS, 2015-2035). The programme was also to contribute to better coordinating the efforts of the various stakeholders involved (including several government agencies, private and cooperative sectors and development partners) through an enhanced platform to review ADS progress.

The overall objective of EU CARD support was to contribute to poverty reduction, food and nutrition security, climate resilience, improve the competitiveness of the sector and generate higher and more equitable incomes in rural areas of Nepal. The EU support was aimed to strengthen the Government of Nepal (GoN) efforts towards addressing sustainable and competitive agricultural production for poverty reduction and eradication of hunger and malnutrition, resilient natural resource management and agricultural production system, as well as inclusive and gender-responsive livelihood enhancement.

The main objective of this evaluation is to provide the relevant services of the European Union and the interested stakeholders with: 1) an overall independent assessment of the past performance of the EU CARD in Nepal, paying particular attention to its results measured against its expected objectives, and the reasons underpinning such results; and 2) key lessons learned, conclusions and related recommendations to improve current and future Interventions. In particular, this evaluation assessed to what extent, and under which circumstances the budget support and the EU interventions have successfully enhanced the policies, strategies and spending actions of the partner government to achieve sustainable sector level development outcomes and a positive impact on poverty reduction and economic growth. 

The scope of this evaluation is the overall CARD intervention. The intervention evaluated included three components: the budget support component; the technical assistance component, and the policy dialogue. The term intervention is used to refer to the overall CARD intervention, otherwise, reference is made to BS intervention, the TA intervention or the policy dialogue. In terms of its scope, the evaluation covered both budget support and TA components of the CARD programme, as well as the policy dialogue. The temporal scope of the evaluation is the entire period of the intervention.