In 2001, UNIDO initiated the Africa Investment Promotion Agency Network
(AfrIPANet), to provide African Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) with a
common platform to discuss and design their investment promotion strategies. As
part of this initiative, a series of enterprise surveys were conducted in 2001, 2003
and 2005, followed by the latest project entitled “Survey of Enterprises in
Selected ACP Regions”. The project plans included two surveys of investors in
the African region. The first survey under this project was planned for 2009, but
was conducted over 2010 - 11. A second survey was planned for 2011 but is now
expected to be carried out in 2013.
As an integral part of the planned outputs of the project, and in line with the
UNIDO Technical Cooperation Guidelines, an independent mid-term evaluation
of the first survey was carried out over June – October 2012 in order to feed into
the design of the second survey. The evaluation was carried out by a team of
external evaluators from Frost & Sullivan; Mrs. J. Saini, Consulting Director, Mr.
M. Ranke, Vice President Customer Research, Mr. M. Briggs, Programme
Manager and Mr. D. Winter, Business Unit Leader Africa.
The evaluation was conducted in compliance with UNIDO’s Evaluation Policy and
attempted to determine as systematically and objectively as possible the
relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability of the project. The
achievements of the project were assessed against the objectives and outputs
established in the project document, including re-examination of the relevance of
the objectives and of the design. The evaluation team has also sought to identify
factors that had facilitated or impeded the achievement of the objectives.
The evaluation was carried out through analysis of various sources of
information, desk review of relevant project documents such as progress reports,
survey data, and primary interviews with various stakeholders and beneficiaries.
The programme was supported by the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of
States (ACP) and European Commission and funded through the 9th European
Development Fund (EDF). The main beneficiaries of the project outcomes are:
• Regional Economic Communities (RECs);
• Intermediary Organizations;
• Private Companies;
• Civil Society; and
• International Development Partners.
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The project’s main counterparts are Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) in all
participating countries and the African Investment Promotion Agency Network
(AfrIPANet). The target audience of the evaluation report are the project donors
and – most importantly – the project team responsible for the design and
implementation of the second Investors Survey. The latter are the main
beneficiaries of the recommendations and lessons learned included in this
evaluation report.