A quick path to more transparency and visibility with the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF)

Launched in November 2015, the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) is an emergency fund set up by the European Union to address destabilisation, forced displacement and irregular migration in three regions of Africa: Sahel and Lake Chad, Horn of Africa and North of Africa. The EUTF does this by promoting resilience and economic opportunities while improving security, development and migration policies.

Using Akvo RSR, the EUTF monitors the progress made on over 300 projects across four topics: employment creation, access to basic services, migration management, and security and governance.

Above: Women weaving fabrics as part of the EUTF's ethical fashion initiative, Burkina Faso, 2017. Credits: Delegation of the European Union to Burkina Faso.

Implementing a programme across multiple organisations and locations can present a host of challenges when it comes to keeping track of results. Before partnering with Akvo, the EUTF had 30 projects in place, but no comprehensive reporting structure in terms of indicators. This meant that results couldn’t be aggregated or shared, communication between partners wasn’t centralised, and evidence-based decisions couldn’t be made regarding the collective achievements of the EUTF.

With no internal resources to build the tool in-house, speed and adaptability were essential. The tool didn’t just need to be ready to use, but ready to deploy to country offices and independent implementing partners across the regions.

The EUTF rolled out RSR retrospectively to the 30 projects already running and implemented it as the M&E (monitoring and evaluation) tool for every subsequent contract, enabling partners worldwide to report to their M&E standards. It has proved essential in strengthening communications and aligning efforts between HQ, delegations, and implementing partners while triggering more transparency on evidence-based decision making, both at programme and regional level.

The RSR results framework was ready to accommodate the complexity of managing the results data of over 300 projects spread over numerous countries, with independent implementing partners. To optimise the use of RSR, Akvo staff provide technical support, M&E consultancy and customised reporting services.

The first objectives of the partnership have been achieved: EU delegations and implementing partners have started using RSR to update and report on all of their projects on a regular basis, providing an overview of the expected and actual results. The EUTF had a specific need for communicating their work in a compelling way, and RSR was able to help facilitate that. The data pulled from RSR, which is IATI compliant and therefore open to the public, is contextualised on their own website, providing a platform which is visible and digestible to a wider audience.

Besides giving a transparent, timely and consolidated overview of the EUTF’s work, RSR enables the EU Emergency Trust Fund to review their results data and make evidence-based decisions regarding the implementation and management of their projects. The EUTF can evaluate whether desired outcomes are being achieved, which approaches work best, and where further attention is needed. With a simple and ready to use tool, the EUTF is able to ensure maximum transparency and accountability while continuously monitoring progress.