WORKING WITH DG ECHO AS A UN AGENCY | 2014 - 2020
ECHO ASSESSMENT AND APPRAISAL PROCESS
ECHO ASSESSMENT PROCESS
Each action will be assessed against a set of criteria according to the specific context of intervention. These criteria include:
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Relevance in regard to ECHO strategy and operational requirements specified in the financing decision/HIP;
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Quality of the needs assessment and of the logical framework;
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Relevance of the intervention and coverage;
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Feasibility;
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Implementation capacity;
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Knowledge of the country/region.
In case of Actions ongoing in the field, where ECHO is requested to fund a continuation, a visit to the ongoing Action may be conducted by ECHO field expert (TA) to determine the feasibility and quality of the Action proposed.
Depending on the characteristics of the crisis, other elements could be taken into account when assessing the proposals, such as:
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Security;
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Coordination;
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Access arrangements;
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Quality of monitoring;
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Sustainability, resilience, Linking Relief Rehabilitation and Development;
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Cost efficiency;
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Comparative advantage of the Action or the partners.
The Single Form guidelines present for each section of the SF the criteria that will be used to assess the various elements of the Action.
Finally, before launching the agreement procedure ECHO will also take into consideration the results of the Financial Risk Assessment.
ECHO APPRAISAL PROCESS
ECHO has established indicative internal deadlines for the various stages of the appraisal procedure.
As a result of ECHO appraisal process, the partner might be requested to modify some aspects of the proposal (e.g. to reduce amount, to modify the results, to ensure better coordination with other actions, etc.)
These requests might be necessary for ECHO to ensure a better coverage of the crisis and a more efficient assistance. However, they should remain reasonable and should not hamper the effective support provided by the partner to its beneficiaries.
In any case, please remember that the project belongs to the partner and that before accepting the requests of modifications it must ensure that it will still be in the position to implement the Action. In such cases, an open dialogue with ECHO is paramount.
In case of difficulties to reach an agreement (e.g. timing of appraisal, nature of negotiation, etc), the partners can contact the desk or the Partner's Helpdesk for support.
Below you can find a table summarising the stages of the ECHO Appraisal process. Please note that the deadlines are indicative (the pre-selection and negotiations phases could be delayed, for instance, when the starting date of the action is planned for later than 60 days from the submission date).
For more information on the role of Desks and TA in the process, you can refer to the document "DG ECHO operational team in the process" that you find below.
