Flagship Projects
Learn more about some of our key MEL engagements - past and present - and ongoing framework contracts.
Flagship Projects
Learn more about some of our key MEL engagements - past and present - and ongoing framework contracts.
Evaluation of Sweden’s country programme support to UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women
NIRAS regularly conducts evaluations that cover aspects of the multilateral system. From 2021 to 2022, we evaluated Sweden’s country programme support (CPS) to UNFPA, UNICEF, and UN Women with case studies in Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Liberia, South Sudan, and Sudan. CPS is a funding modality consisting of long-term unearmarked support to the country programme of a UN organisation. Using a contribution analysis approach, the evaluation sought to expand the knowledge by examining changes in organisational behaviours, inter-organisational relations, and the Sweden-UN strategic partnership.
It explored what contexts and circumstances the modality is best suited to in order to maximise results and further the UN’s 'Delivering as One'. It found that the flexible, long-term nature of CPS enhanced effectiveness and efficiency within the UN organisations. It concluded that CPS is adding value to the implementation of country programmes/strategic notes and Sweden’s strategy, but there is potential to use CPS more effectively.
MEL systems and digital solutions for a foundation-led global clean energy initiative
Since 2022, NIRAS has been the MEL partner of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), an initiative jointly funded by Rockefeller Foundation, IKEA Foundation, and Bezos Earth Fund. GEAPP aims to support developing countries’ shift to clean energy, using a pro-growth model with long-term goals to reduce carbon emissions, increase access to energy, improve jobs and livelihoods, and mobilise climate finance. As a critical friend of a fast-growing initiative, NIRAS provides thought leadership to help GEAPP review and revise key methodologies, such as the process for setting country impact targets, and has provided on-demand support to key stakeholders (including board members, or country teams).
To support GEAPP in better communicating its impact, a NIRAS in-house digital solutions specialist designed a bespoke MIS dashboard to collect and publish aggregable indicators relevant to GEAPP’s long-term impacts in real time. We have also developed a comprehensive MEL framework to cover a diverse set of interventions within the GEAPP portfolio and ensure a cohesive approach across all workstreams and geographies.
Longitudinal evaluation of the Ford Foundation’s BUILD initiative to promote social justice globally
In 2016, the Ford Foundation launched the Building Institutions and Networks Initiative (BUILD) to strengthen the capacity and resilience of 350+ social justice organisations globally so they can amplify their impact. The Foundation launched a second, six-year, phase of the BUILD programme in 2022, which included a longitudinal study of BUILD’s impact over time to assess ‘the BUILD effect’ beyond the five-year time horizon of BUILD 1.0. The study is focusing on BUILD’s impact on grantee partners' organisational and financial resilience and the ways in which partners achieve social justice. It will also assess how partners that do not receive continued BUILD support experience the evolution of organisational and financial resilience and impact. Based on a utilisation-focused approach and applying the Equitable Evaluation Framework™ (EEF) throughout the study, NIRAS seeks to measure and describe whether, how and to what extent BUILD supports partners to demonstrably increase their resilience.
The study also aims to generate learning about BUILD-like grant making for partners and the wider field. The key audiences for this learning include partners, the Ford Foundation, and the broader philanthropic community. NIRAS’ approach to designing the study has been based on the understanding that a collaborative framework will identify the best approaches and methods for collecting meaningful and pertinent insights. The collaboration framework included six co-creation convenings with partners, the philanthropic community, and Ford Foundation programme officers and directors. Following this collaborative design phase, the Evaluation Team will embark on two data collection waves (2023 and 2025), designing and applying a variety of qualitative and quantitative instruments and consulting with two advisory teams.
Delivering on the UK-Government’s largest ever MEL contract
The Prosperity Fund was a (2017-2022) cross-UK-Government GBP 1.2 billion portfolio of programmes, which aimed to promote economic growth in middle-income countries around the globe. The Fund was structured around five key sectors: infrastructure; human capital, innovation & technology; trade; financial & economic reform; and ease of doing business. It supported programmes in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, and Turkey, as well as a suite of ‘global’ programmes with a thematic focus including in trade, anti-corruption and business environment reform. NIRAS worked in a consortium to deliver evaluation and learning services to the whole Prosperity Fund portfolio, including technical design, evaluation implementation and learning services. The approach in the early part of the evaluation was formative (exploring design and set-up, etc.) and theory based. As the programme matured, the emphasis shifted to a more summative focus on actual results delivered against the project and programme Theories of Change, including what difference the programme made (i.e. observed changes and the contribution of the programme vis-à-vis other factors), and how and why the results emerged.
We employed contribution analysis, which aims to establish a programme’s contribution (not attribution) to results including identifying other influencing and contributing factors. NIRAS led the design of both the Fund Evaluation and the 24 programme evaluations. We developed a framework methodology for all the programme evaluations utilising contribution analysis and a realist synthesis approach to synthesise the evaluation findings by sector and at the overall Fund level. The evaluations generated information on progress towards results, lessons for ongoing implementation and supporting and constraining factors (i.e. what works well in what contexts and for whom), working closely with the multiple UK Government departments and offices implementing the Prosperity Fund and its programmes, with implementing partners and other programme stakeholders. The evaluation and learning services delivered supported the Prosperity Fund with a budget of £24 million over four years, making it one of the largest evaluation and learning service contracts procured by the UK Government.
“I would like to extend my thanks to you and your team for your efforts and commitment to the programme. The [Joint Funds Unit] would like to put on record their recognition to the [Evaluation and Learning] team in delivering solid work under often challenging circumstances, remaining flexible, adaptable and professional throughout.”
Daniel Davis, Head of Prosperity Fund
Evaluating Sida’s approaches to democratisation at country level
NIRAS explored how effectively Sida adapted to Sweden’s increased focus on democratisation in a global context marked by growing threats to democratic space. Focusing on Sida’s support in five countries —Guatemala, Liberia, Myanmar, Moldova, and Tanzania between 2014 and 2023—the evaluation examined how democratisation was promoted both directly and indirectly through other sectors.
The purpose was to deepen understanding of Sida’s approaches across diverse contexts and to support learning that can inform future strategy. It assessed what types of democratisation support are most effective—and under what conditions—and explored how well Sida’s efforts align across sectors, partners, and levels of the organisation. To guide the theory-based evaluation, the evaluation team developed and applied a conceptual framework grounded in International IDEA’s Global State of Democracy (GSoD) model, which offered an internationally recognised structure for assessing democratisation. The team engaged key stakeholders throughout the evaluation process to enhance utility, obtain data, validate data, and hopefully promote future uptake. Time was also set for reflection with feedback loops, so that information and accumulation of knowledge during the process could bring new perspectives.
Delivering innovative approaches to evaluation of attribution and transformation in international climate finance
Together with our partner the Climate Policy Institute, NIRAS designed and implemented a theory-based M&E programme to assess the long-term impacts of investments under the 11-year UK FCDO/BEIS-funded Climate Public Private Partnership (CP3) (2015-2026). We piloted an innovative approach to measuring attribution and transformation of climate finance, specifically focusing on the evidence of contribution and additionality of the UK investment in two commercially-run private equity funds and one technical assistance facility. The study, which has informed the design of future UK international climate finance, involved a range of products including investment-level deep dives, case studies, thematic portfolio-level evaluative synthesis reports, and a suite of communications and learning materials.
Leading the way on MEL for blue economy and marine environment initiatives
The Blue Economy comprises of a range of economic sectors and related policies that seek to ensure the use of oceanic and coastal resources is sustainable. It has diverse components to represent the wide range of economic activities and socioeconomic development sectors that aim to protect and enhance the benefits provided by the ocean’s ecosystems, such as fisheries, sustainable aquaculture, tourism, marine renewable energy, biotechnology, coastal management, and marine spatial planning. NIRAS is currently engaged as the MEL partner for the Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) - a key part of the UK’s £500 million Blue Planet Fund. OCPP aims to address marine pollution, marine biodiversity and sustainable seafood primarily through partnerships with, and technical assistance to, ODA-eligible countries. NIRAS’ works will strengthen monitoring systems, produce interim and final process and impact evaluations and discrete additional evaluation assignments, and promote cross-programme learning, knowledge exchange and communication.
Another key recent assignment is our MEL support to the Blue Ventures’ Blue Forests, which seeks to protect and sustainably manage mangrove forests in Madagascar and Indonesia through a community-led approach, with the focus on improving the sustainability of small-scale fisheries and community livelihoods, as well as to establish carbon finance mechanisms to incentivise mangrove conservation by mangrove-dependent communities. NIRAS has assessed the programme MEL Framework to identify gaps and provide recommendations for improvements and is conducting a summative evaluation of the Blue Forests programme, which will inform learning and decision making for the wider Blue Ventures programme and beyond.
Framework Contracts
NIRAS’s successful history in managing EU Framework Contracts continues with SEA 2023
The European Commission’s Framework Contract for Services for External Action (SEA 2023) is the latest phase of the framework contract through which the EU institutions in charge of external action can rapidly mobilise expertise and services. NIRAS is involved in 12 out of the 17 awarded lots, including all three lots that focus on monitoring and evaluation services: Lot 15 (Monitoring – consortium lead), Lot 16 (Project/Programme Evaluations – co-lead), and Lot 17 (Strategic Evaluations – partner). The total budget of the three MEL lots is approx. EUR 205 million over four years, and the geographical coverage of the services is worldwide. Specific monitoring and evaluation contracts can relate to any technical sector, instrument or modality of the EU’s external action. In Lot 15, the NIRAS-led consortium has been the most successful in securing assignments, as well as Ecorys-led consortium in Lot 16, where NIRAS is a co-leader (as of July 2025).
The NIRAS Framework Contract Unit and its 30+ employees based in Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Serbia, and Sweden handle the overall management of the framework contract to the highest standard. With two decades’ experience in implementing the EU’s framework contracts, NIRAS has tested and proven systems and procedures in place to manage all requests for services and deliver excellence in implementation. During the previous phase of the framework contract, we implemented 45 monitoring or evaluation assignments.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland: NIRAS provides evaluation services to the MFA Finland through two framework contracts
NIRAS is one of four contractors in the Framework Agreement for Centralised Evaluations (FACE) (2024-2028), which provides strategic and policy-level evaluations for the Evaluation Unit (EVA-11) at the Ministry. In FACE, we build on our years of experience in conducting this type of evaluations for the MFA Finland under the two previous phases of the framework contract (EMS1 and EMS2).
While serving as the sole service provider for the Ministry’s strategic and policy-level evaluations between 2019-2024, our consortium piloted innovative tools, such as the use of Natural Language Processing models to process large amounts of text in the evaluation of Human Rights-Based Approach in Finland’s development policy and cooperation, and exploring and pioneering forward-looking and future-sensitive evaluation approaches. NIRAS is also the first-ranked provider for the Finnish MFA’s Framework Agreement for Decentralised Evaluations and Reviews (FADER) (2023-2026).
GEMFA (UK): Since 2023, NIRAS has been leading a consortium of 23 members for the UK FCDO Global Evaluation Monitoring Framework Agreement (GEMFA), covering both Lot 1 (Monitoring, high value lot) and Lot 3 (MEL, high value lot), with individual call-down at a size >£600k
Our consortium has a strong Southern presence and local networks across Africa, Asia, Latin America, including in conflict-affected areas. The operation of the consortium is led by the NIRAS Consortium Management Team, with each consortium member participating in a Consortium Board and QA Panel to facilitate collaboration and sharing of lessons learnt. NIRAS has also developed a bespoke digital tool to support efficient framework management and increase transparency in partner communication. Through GEMFA, NIRAS won a £1.9 million MEL contract for Defra’s Ocean Country Partnership Programme and is leading on its implementation. We also won the MEL contract for phase 2 of the Low Carbon Development Initiative (LCDI) valued at £1.1 million and the Independent MEL Component for the Just Transitions for Water Security Programme (JTWS) at a value of £1.9 million.
Sida: Since 2011, NIRAS has provided evaluation services to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)
NIRAS is currently the number one ranked supplier under the Framework Agreement for Evaluation Services to Sida, a multi-year contract with an estimated annual value of approximately EUR 2.5 million (excluding VAT), distributed over approximately 25-40 individual call-offs a year. NIRAS has mobilised 15 core team evaluators, 5 quality assurance advisers, 10 methods advisers, and 5 evaluation managers to ensure efficient management and quality services to Sida in line with OECD-DAC evaluation principles and practices. NIRAS has furthermore developed evaluation tools; bespoke digital tools for data collection, analysis, and communication; resource libraries; and a discussion forum on a dedicated Teams peer channel for our teams to use.