Terminal Evaluation of the UNEP/GEF Project “Implementation of the POPs Monitoring Plan in the Asian Region” (GEF ID 4894) (2015 - 2024)

This report is a Terminal Evaluation of the UNEP/GEF project, “Implementation of the POPs Monitoring Plan in the Asian Region (GEF ID: 4894)”, implemented between 2015 and 2024. The project's overall goals were to strengthen the capacity for implementation of the updated Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) and to create conditions for sustainable monitoring of POPs in the Asian region. The evaluation sought to assess project performance (in terms of relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency) and determine the sustainability of its results. The evaluation has two primary purposes: accountability and learning. Data collection methods included in-person interviews in Thailand, in-depth virtual interviews, a short questionnaire, and document reviews. Data analysis was based on applying triangulated data to assess performance against a reconstructed Theory of Change and its causal pathways. With an overall performance rating of Moderately Satisfactory, the 4th point on a six-point scale, the main findings include: i) the project made a strategically important contribution to the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Stockholm Convention and expanding the global evidence base on POPs, ii) the project delivered all of its planned Outputs, fully or partially, with credible quality across seven countries, supported capacity development in passive and active air sampling, and ensured quality through the use of expert reference laboratories and inter-laboratory assessments, and iii) comparative weaknesses were apparent in the project’s design being overly ambitious, a lack of a regional strategy to support a collaborative approach among countries to complement their monitoring efforts, prolonged project implementation with repeated no-cost extensions, and limited attention to long-term institutional, socio-political, and financial continuity. The main recommendations to UNEP include but are not limited to: i) establish a formal and standing knowledge management and communication strategy for national GMP coordinators and experts, anchored by Regional Centres, to institutionalize peer support, technical exchange, and rapid problem-solving beyond the project’s lifetime and ii) consider that the project design integrates links between POPs monitoring and policymaking at the national level to support the project's sustainability.