USAID Competitiveness, Trade and Jobs Activity in Central Asia Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

The project is implemented by DAI Global, LLC, and is funded by USAID with a total award amount of $23,464,281. The project duration is from October 1, 2016, to September 30, 2021. The project's objective is to facilitate the development of competitive, inclusive market systems in Central Asia, leveraging CTJ, USAID, and other donor resources to expand outreach and maximize impact. The project will be implemented in the five Central Asian countries, and will respond to the C5+1 Ministerial Platform initiatives by incentivizing targeted economic sectors to become more regionally competitive and by harmonizing cross-border trade. The project's monitoring and evaluation approach is based on company project management procedures and best practices, USAID requirements, and the principles of Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation (CLA) approach. The project performance management system tracks results of direct project beneficiaries and local project implementation partners, and acknowledges significant lag times between Activity actions and market responses, and the attribution problems inherent in a market-based facilitation approach. The project's results framework/logical framework outlines the structure of CTJ's different aims, activities, and purposes, and is based on USAID/Central Asia's Logical Framework. The project results framework graphically depicts the relationships of the USAID and CTJ goals and activities relative to the project's key result areas that contribute to project intermediate results. The project has revised baseline data and defined annual targets for each indicator, and has refined definitions for Activity Performance Indicators 1 and 3. The project has also identified the tourism sector as a third target sector, and will consider amending its performance indicators with specific custom indicators for this sector once an activity plan for the tourism sector is finalized and agreed with stakeholders. The project's monitoring and evaluation plan includes a large number of context indicators to establish background to analysis of the Activity performance, and acknowledges that easily quantified or qualified to present a performance indicator, market-based facilitation approach produces a lot of other data through constant assessment of target markets. While this AMEP does not include this data as part of formal project indicators, it takes it into account when analyzing project progress towards stated indicator targets. The project's performance indicators include the number of commerce laws and regulations prepared and/or simplified in accordance with international standards as a result of CTJ assistance, and the number of new types of trade, transport, and logistics services provided. The project will also track results of direct project beneficiaries and local project implementation partners, and will monitor individual data for each country where appropriate. The project's monitoring and evaluation plan includes a system for the CTJ team to allocate resources for optimum performance, and will track results of direct project beneficiaries and local project implementation partners. The project will also monitor individual data for each country where appropriate, and will take into account specifics of the five countries in which the Activity is implemented. The project's performance management system compensates for challenges such as significant lag times between Activity actions and market responses, and the attribution problems inherent in a market-based facilitation approach. The project will also track results of direct project beneficiaries and local project implementation partners, and will monitor individual data for each country where appropriate.