Evaluation Report-Green Cities-GEF
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GREEN CITIES: INTEGRATED SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT FOR BATUMI AND THE ACHARA REGION (ISTBAR) GEF Project ID: 5468 UNDP PIMS ID: 4980 Atlas Project ID: 82231 Project ID: 91251 FINAL REPORT Submitted by Ángel Aparicio November 29th, 2020 Fundación Agustín de Betancourt Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Avenida profesor Aranguren s/n 28040 MADRID (Spain) Tel: +34 913 365 235 E-mail: [email protected] ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Recognition is due to the many people who dedicated their time to meet with the evaluator and share their experiences and knowledge, which served to produce this report. Rusudan Kardava, national consultant for the terminal evaluation, undertook the desk review of project documents and the interviews in Georgian. The UNDP CO in Georgia, and in particular the Project Manager and the Administrative and Financial Officer, attended the requests of the evaluators with diligence and efficiency. The evaluation team is also grateful to John O'Brien and Bahtiyar Kurt, respectively Regional Advisor and Regional Technical Support Specialist at the UNDP Regional Office in Europe and Central Asia. DISCLAIMER Due to the travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this report was produced without conducting any field mission. All the relevant stakeholders were interviewed remotely, except those that did not answered to the evaluators’ requests. Once the terminal evaluation started, the project has been granted an additional extension until end of October 2020 in order to complete the construction works for the demonstration corridor in Batumi. The evaluation plan was adjusted in order to cover this extension and to be able to assess the completion of these works. P a g e | 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments ................................................................................................. 2 Acronyms and Abbreviations ................................................................................. 5 Executive Summary ................................................................................................ 7 1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 17 1.1. Purpose of the evaluation ................................................................................................................ 17 1.2. Scope and methodology .................................................................................................................. 17 1.3. Evaluation instruments .................................................................................................................... 21 1.4. Structure of the TE report ................................................................................................................ 21 2. Project Description and Development Context ............................................... 22 2.1. Project start and duration ................................................................................................................ 22 2.2. Problems that the project sought to address .................................................................................. 22 2.3. Immediate and development objectives of the project .................................................................. 23 2.4. Baseline indicators established ........................................................................................................ 23 2.5. Main stakeholders ............................................................................................................................ 25 2.6. Expected results ............................................................................................................................... 30 3. Findings ......................................................................................................... 33 3.1. Project Design .................................................................................................................................. 33 3.1.1. Analysis of Project Results Framework (project strategy and indicators) ............................. 33 3.1.2. Assumptions and risks ........................................................................................................... 36 3.1.3. Lessons from other relevant projects incorporated into project design ............................... 39 3.1.4. Planned stakeholder participation......................................................................................... 39 3.1.5. Replication approach ............................................................................................................. 40 3.1.6. UNDP comparative advantage ............................................................................................... 40 3.1.7. Linkages between project and other interventions within the sector .................................. 40 3.1.8. Management arrangements .................................................................................................. 41 3.2. Project Implementation ................................................................................................................... 41 3.2.1. Adaptive management .......................................................................................................... 41 3.2.2. Partnership arrangements ..................................................................................................... 42 3.2.3. Feedback from M&E activities used for adaptive management ........................................... 43 3.2.4. Project Finance ...................................................................................................................... 44 3.2.5. Monitoring and evaluation: design at entry and implementation ........................................ 46 3.2.6. UNDP and Implementing Partner implementation / execution, coordination, and operational issues ............................................................................................................................ 48 3.2.7. COVID impact on project implementation ............................................................................ 49 3.3. Project Results .................................................................................................................................. 50 3.3.1. Overall results (attainment of objectives) ............................................................................. 50 Green Cities: Integrated Sustainable Transport for Batumi and the Achara Region (ISTBAR) November 2020 P a g e | 2 3.3.2. Relevance ............................................................................................................................... 55 3.3.3. Effectiveness .......................................................................................................................... 56 3.3.4. Efficiency ................................................................................................................................ 57 3.3.5. Country ownership ................................................................................................................ 58 3.3.6. Mainstreaming ....................................................................................................................... 58 3.3.7. Sustainability .......................................................................................................................... 59 3.3.8. Impact .................................................................................................................................... 61 4. Conclusions, Recommendations and Lessons ................................................. 63 4.1. Corrective actions for the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project ..... 63 4.2. Actions to follow up or reinforce initial benefits from the project .................................................. 67 4.3. Proposals for future directions underlining main objectives ........................................................... 68 4.4. Best and worst practices in addressing issues relating to relevance, performance and success .... 69 Annexes ............................................................................................................... 73 Annex 1: Terms of Reference ................................................................................................................... 75 Annex 2: Evaluation Question Matrix ...................................................................................................... 93 Annex 3: Questionnaire used and summary of results ............................................................................ 99 Annex 4: Rating Scales ........................................................................................................................... 101 Annex 5: TE mission itinerary (not implemented) ................................................................................. 102 Annex 6: List of persons interviewed ..................................................................................................... 103 Annex 7: List of documents reviewed .................................................................................................... 105 Annex 8: Signed UNEG Code of Conduct form ...................................................................................... 107 Annex 9: Signed TE report clearance form ............................................................................................ 108 Annex 10: GEF Tracking Tool ................................................................................................................