Final evaluation of the Institutional University Cooperation with Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador

This evaluation concerns the evaluation of the second phase of the Institutional University Cooperation (IUC) programme implemented in partnership between the University of Cuenca, Ecuador and the uni[1]versities of Leuven, Brussel, Gent and Antwerp in Belgium. An IUC programme combines objectives of institutional strengthening and strategic thematic capacity building and covers a period of 10 to 12 years, with 2 main project phases of 5 years each. The IUC partner programme in Ecuador was subdivided in 7 constituting projects in the areas of food, nutrition and health, human sexuality, integrated water quality management, medicinal plants, world heritage city preservation management, international migration and local development and an institutional transversal project. At the moment of the evaluation the pro[1]gramme was running the phasing out phase. 

The evaluation was expected to collect data to account for the results towards the different stakeholders (accountability), but also to draw lessons learned (learning) and to formulate recommendations to sup[1]port further decision making process on the IUC, including the overall policy framework (steering). The evaluation was based on an assessment of the 5 OECD/DAC criteria and an additional criterion on scientific quality, at programme and project level. The evaluation was implemented in three phases, namely an inception phase, a data collection phase, and an analysis and reporting phase and took place in the period between February 2017– June 2017. The evaluators applied a mixture of data collection methods, such as document analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, on-site project visits, a workshop to reconstruct a timeline and restitutions meetings both in Cuenca and Belgium.