REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the Interim Evaluation of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative for the period mid-2014 to mid-2017
Date: 2018-06-28
Institutions: Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), European Commission
Subjects: EU initiative, aid to disaster victims, emergency aid, financial aid, international voluntary worker, man-made disaster, natural disaster, third country, voluntary organisation

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 28.6.2018  COM(2018) 496 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the Interim Evaluation of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative for the period mid-2014 to mid-2017 {SWD(2018) 353 final}  
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENT 

1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 2 

2. PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION ............................................................................. 3 

3. MAIN FINDINGS ...................................................................................................................... 3 

4. CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................................... 6 

5. THE WAY FORWARD ............................................................................................................... 7 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  

AND THE COUNCIL 

on the interim evaluation of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative 
for the period mid-2014 to mid-2017 

1. INTRODUCTION 

1. As envisaged in the Treaty of Lisbon1, the European Union (EU) established the EU Aid 
Volunteers initiative (hereafter 'the initiative') in 2014. Three legal acts govern the initiative: 
Regulation  (EU)  No  375/2014  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  3  April 
20142 (hereafter 'the Regulation'), Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1244/2014 
of  20 November  20143  and  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  No  1398/2014  of 
24 October 20144. The initiative’s objective is to help strengthen the EU’s capacity to provide 
needs-based humanitarian aid and to help increase the capacity and resilience of vulnerable or 
disaster-affected  communities  in  third  countries,  while  giving  European  citizens  an 
opportunity to be involved in humanitarian action in third countries, showing solidarity with 
people in need.  

2. The initiative provides funding to consortia of EU-based and non-EU based organisations 
for the deployment and the preparation for deployment (including apprenticeships) of EU Aid 
Volunteers to third countries. It also funds projects to develop the capacities of EU-based and 
non-EU based organisations to comply with the standards and procedures that are required to 
participate  in  the  initiative  and  to  improve  their  capacity  building,  including  in  volunteer 
management.  The  initiative  also  establishes  standards,  procedures  and  a  certification 
mechanism,  a  training  programme  to  prepare  EU  Aid  volunteers  for  deployment  in  third 
countries, a database with eligible EU Aid volunteers, a network and a communication plan.  

3.  To  implement  the  initiative,  an  amount  of  EUR 147 936 000  has  been  earmarked  for  the 
period  between  1 January  2014  and  31 December  2020.  While  the  achievements  under  the 
initiative  are  growing,  the  implementation  of  the  initiative  is  considerably  below  the 
expectations  set  in  the  Multiannual  Financial  Framework  for  2014-2020  in  terms  of 
budgetary implementation and number of volunteers trained and deployed. 

4. This report sets out the results of the interim evaluation (hereafter ‘the evaluation’) of the 
EU Aid Volunteers initiative and is accompanied by a staff working document covering the 
detailed  findings  of  the  evaluation.  It  builds  on  the  evidence  provided  in  the  external 

1  Article 214 (5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 
2  Regulation (EU) No 375/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 establishing 
the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps (‘EU Aid Volunteers initiative’) (Official Journal (OJ) L 
122, 24.4.2014, p. 1). 

3  Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1244/2014 of 20 November 2014 laying down rules for the 
implementation of Regulation (EU) No 375/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 
2014 establishing the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps (‘EU Aid Volunteers initiative’) (OJ L 
334, 21.11.2014, p. 52). 

4  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  No  1398/2014  of  24 October  2014  laying  down  standards 

regarding candidate volunteers and EU Aid Volunteers (OJ L 373, 31.12.2014, p. 8). 

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evaluation,  as  well  as  feedback  received  during  discussions  with  stakeholders  and  an  open 
public consultation. The report also indicates potential  areas for further  development of the 
initiative, taking into account the recommendations and the need to increase the uptake of the 
initiative.  

2. PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE EVALUATION 

5. As set out in Article 27(4)(b) of the Regulation, the Commission is required to submit an 
interim evaluation report to the European Parliament and to the Council. The main purpose of 
the interim evaluation is to provide an independent assessment of the results obtained and the 
qualitative  and  quantitative  aspects  of  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation,  including  the 
impact  of  the  initiative  in  the  humanitarian  sector  and  the  cost-effectiveness  of  the 
programme  during  the  first  three  years  of  implementation  following  its  establishment  in 
2014. The evaluation therefore examines implementation of the initiative from mid-2014 to 
mid-2017. 

6.  The  external  evaluation  was  carried  out  between  May  and  November  20175.  The  fact-
finding  phase  included  a  comprehensive  document  review  and  extensive  consultations  with 
stakeholders (including at Commission level and with Member State representatives, sending 
organisations,  hosting  organisations,  EU  Aid  Volunteers,  and  other  key  stakeholders). 
Different tools were used, including online surveys and semi-structured phone or face-to-face 
interviews. Six targeted surveys6 were carried out and three field missions were conducted in 
Latin  America  and  the  Caribbean,  the  Middle-East,  and  South-East  Asia7.  An  open  public 
consultation was carried out online for three months (August-October 2017) with a total of 30 
responses.  Three  case  studies  on  different  projects  carried  out  through  the  initiative  (i.e. 
certification,  deployment  and  technical  assistance  and  capacity  building)  completed  the 
methodological approach. 

7.  Overall,  the  surveys  and  the  comments  gathered  from  the  interviews  provide  useful 
insights  into  the  implementation  of  the  initiative.  As  a  result  of  the  unavailability  of  final 
project  reports  at  the  time  of  the  evaluation  and  the  limited  uptake  in  the  first  years,  the 
interim evaluation  can  only  give an indication about  the initiative’s overall  impact on local 
communities,  the  improvement  in  the  capacities  of  stakeholders,  the  development  of  skills 
and the potential impact of EU Aid Volunteers on the humanitarian sector.  

5 
6 

7 

Final report available at: https://ec.europa.eu/echo/funding-evaluations/evaluations/thematic-evaluations_en  
Target groups of surveys: EU Aid Volunteers (candidates and deployed); EU Aid Volunteers sending 
organisations and their partners; EU Aid Volunteers hosting organisations; Directorate-General for 
European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO) Framework Partnership 
Agreement partners (those not yet engaged); EU Aid Volunteers pilot project partners (those not yet 
engaged); and Member States representatives (Council Working Party on Humanitarian Aid and Food Aid 
(COHAFA), Council Working Party on Civil Protection (PROCIV), and Humanitarian Aid Committee 
(HAC)). 
Latin America and Caribbean: Haiti and Ecuador; Middle-East: Jordan and Lebanon; and South-East Asia: 
Myanmar and Cambodia. 

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3. MAIN FINDINGS 

8. The interviews that the external evaluator carried out with the various stakeholder groups 
found  that  the  initiative’s  five  objectives8,  as  set  out  in  the  Regulation,  are  relevant  for  the 
initiative’s  beneficiaries,  sending  and  hosting  organisations  and  volunteers.  Local 
communities  find  particularly  useful  those  activities  that  encourage  local  volunteering  and 
capacity  building  to  improve  skills  locally  to  prepare  for  disasters.  In  general,  the  different 
actions carried out under the initiative are relevant to the initiative’s objectives. However, the 
objective of communicating the EU’s humanitarian aid principles is only considered relevant 
by a small number of stakeholders (mainly volunteers). This means more attention is required 
on  this  point  in  the  initiative’s  communication  activities.  Interest  from  established 
humanitarian  Framework  Partnership  Agreement  partners  remains  very  low,  which  is 
problematic  for  an  initiative  that  is  supposed  to  serve  the  humanitarian  aid  sector.  Sending 
and  hosting  organisations  that  participate  in  the  initiative  have  a  relatively  positive  view 
about its ability to meet their needs, and manage to deploy volunteers with the right profiles 
in line with the needs of hosting organisations.  

9. The initiative has not been effective in achieving its five objectives, and the targets set in 
the  2014-2020  multiannual  financial  framework  are  still  far from  being met.  The  budget  in 
the first three years was not fully used, although the figures for 2017 saw a strong uptake in 
funding  for  capacity  building  /  technical  assistance.  The  numbers  of  volunteers,  although 
increasing,  remain  well  below  the  target.  More  than  200  EU  Aid  Volunteers  have  been 
deployed to humanitarian projects in third countries. However, the number is far below the 
targets  of  4  000  EU  Aid  Volunteers  by  2020.  The  main  reason  for  this  is  the  barriers  to 
participation, such as the certification of organisations or the need to form partnerships with 
other  organisations  to  apply  for  EU  funding.  These  have  posed  a  particular  challenge  for 
organisations that do not operate in established networks. The search for consortium partners 
and  the  administrative  procedures  to  manage  a  consortium  hampers  effectiveness.  The 
effectiveness  of  the  recruitment  process  could  be  further  improved  by  speeding  up 
procedures. The initiative provided a limited contribution to improving the EU’s capacity to 
provide humanitarian aid to date, given its small budget and the slow uptake. There is some 
evidence  from  the  evaluation  surveys  that  volunteers  feel  that  their  skills  have  improved 
through the deployment. The few placements offered through the initiative in its early years 
increased the opportunities for people to contribute to humanitarian aid. There is no evidence 
so  far  that  the  volunteering  standards  set  in  the  initiative  have  had  positive  effects  on  the 
national  standards  of  EU  Member  States.  Some  organisations  find  the  forming  of  consortia 
difficult, especially when they do not work with established networks.  

10.  Procedures  and  requirements  with  a  strong  impact  on  the  initiative’s  efficiency  are 
regulated  in  detail  in  three  legislative  acts.  Although  this  creates  on  the  one  hand  a  certain 
administrative burden for organisations, it is on the other hand positive for the experience of 
volunteers,  because  it  establishes  a  transparent  recruitment  process  and  supports  their 
learning  and  development  during  the  deployment.  New  European  rules  and  procedures  for 

8   Article  7  of  the  Regulation  No  375/2014  states  that  "  The  EU  Aid  Volunteers  initiative  shall  pursue  the  following  operational 
objectives: to contribute to increasing and improving the EU’s capacity to provide humanitarian aid; to improve the skills, knowledge 
and competences of volunteers in the field of humanitarian aid and the terms and conditions of their engagement; to build the capacity 
of hosting organisations and foster volunteering in third countries; to communicate the EU’s humanitarian aid principles agreed in the 
European Consensus on Humanitarian Aid; to improve coherence and consistency of volunteering across Member States in order to 
improve opportunities for EU citizens to participate in humanitarian aid activities and operations." 

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managing volunteers can be especially burdensome for organisations if they run their national 
volunteering  scheme  in  parallel  to  the  initiative.  Some  organisations  find  the  process 
discouraging, because it can take up to 18 months: from the publication of a call for proposals 
through  the  selection  process,  the  publication  of  vacancies  for  volunteers,  the  training  of 
volunteers  to  the  deployment  of  volunteers.  Within  this  legislative  framework,  the 
Commission  constantly  seeks  to  simplify  and  accelerate  processes,  in  order  to  increase  the 
initiative’s attractiveness to stakeholders. The application, selection and reporting procedures 
appear particularly burdensome for organisations that are mainly active in EU humanitarian 
aid (emergency response) projects, which follow different procedures for grant management. 
An efficient monitoring system was put in place, which could be further developed to process 
qualitative information and ad hoc reports, in addition to quantitative information. Any cost-
efficiency  analysis  can  only  provide  a  preliminary  assessment,  given  that  no  final  project 
reports or related financial data are available at this stage. The external evaluation noted cost-
conscious behaviour on the part of the Commission  with regard to service contracts, which 
are based on the number of volunteers trained and insured. The initiative will require simpler 
processes,  more  outreach  and  communication  about  its  potential  positive  impacts  on 
organisations  in  the  EU  and  abroad  and  the  way  it  works,  and  stronger  links  between  the 
initiative and EU humanitarian and development objectives and funding. 

11.  There  is  room  for  improvement  in  the  initiative’s  coherence  with  humanitarian  aid, 
development and civil protection instruments. The initiative was not embedded in the existing 
EU instruments providing humanitarian aid, but was set up as a stand-alone instrument.  As 
volunteers must not be deployed to regions of armed conflict, some third countries where a 
considerable  part  of  humanitarian  aid  is  provided  are  excluded  from  the  scope  of  the 
initiative.  Regarding  the  coherence  with  EU  development  cooperation  policy,  the  broad 
definition of humanitarian aid used in the Regulation allows for synergies, as volunteers can 
be deployed in a wide variety of projects including activities which link relief, rehabilitation 
and development and which support and develop the overall resilience of local communities. 
Even  if  the  initiative  is  not  formally  linked  to  the  Sustainable  Development  Goals,  the 
majority of participating hosting organisations state that they are active in both humanitarian 
aid  and  development.  The  internal  consistency  of  the  actions  carried  out  cannot  be  fully 
assessed at this stage of the initiative, but their design suggests they should be consistent with 
each other. 

12.  The  initiative  creates  EU  added  value  through  common  standards  for  managing 
volunteers  from  all  EU  countries,  common  training,  and  funding  for  capacity  building  and 
technical  assistance.  It enables  organisations  with  different  backgrounds  (e.g.  humanitarian, 
development,  civil  protection,  volunteering  organisations)  and  of  different  sizes  to  work 
together.  It  is  open  not  only  to  Framework  Partnership  Agreement  partners  but  to  all  EU-
based  organisations  that  are  active  or  intend  to  become  active  in  humanitarian  aid.  For 
example,  only  3  %  of  the  humanitarian  Framework  Partnership  Agreement  partners  are 
organisations  from  Member  States  that  joined  the  EU  in  2004  or  later9.  The  share  of  these 
organisations  to  the  total  number  of  certified  organisations  is  much  higher  (20%).  In  this 
respect  the  initiative  was  able  to  involve  a  broad  range  of  organisations  from  different  EU 
Member States.   

9 Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania.   

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4. CONCLUSIONS 

13. Taking into account the findings of the external evaluation report and its own experience 
and  dialogue  with  stakeholders  during  the  initiative’s  initial  implementation  period,  the 
Commission`s overall conclusion is that the initiative provides added value and its objectives 
are relevant to stakeholders. However, the evaluation highlights a number of challenges that 
should  be  addressed  in  order  to  further  increase  the  initiative’s  impact  and  make  it  more 
the 
in 
attractive  for  organisations  and  volunteers.  These  aspects  are  highlighted 
accompanying staff working document and are summarised in the following paragraphs. 

14.  The  actions  of  the  initiative  are  regulated  in  much  detail  by  three  legal  acts.  There  has 
been a lengthy building-up of a stakeholders' base of organisations in the three first years of 
implementation.  This  was  coupled  with  lengthy  procedures  and  a  transition  of  EU  funded 
capacity and technical assistance projects to deployment projects.  Once a sufficient number 
of organisations has successfully undergone certification and reached the standards following 
the  technical  assistance  and  capacity  building  support,  it  is  expected  that  the  organisations 
become more confident and more interested in deploying EU Aid Volunteers. 

15.  Simplification  of  processes  and  administrative  procedures  needs  to  be  put  in  place  in 
order  to  increase  participation  by  organisations  in  the  initiative.  Feedback  received  from 
participating organisations and from organisations that  are not  yet involved in  the initiative 
shows  a  clear  need  for  the  procedures  to  be  reviewed.  For  example,  sending  organisations 
find  the  certification  process  challenging;  therefore,  consideration  should  be  given  to 
reviewing the certification process and providing more support for interested organisations in 
the short to medium term. The technical assistance projects, which help organisations reach 
the expected standards in volunteer management, safety and security, should be better linked 
to the certification process of EU-based organisations. 

16.  The  initiative’s  attractiveness  may  be  increased  if  the  time  to  deployment  (from  the 
publication of the calls to the actual deployment) would be reduced from currently one and a 
half  years  to  more  rapid  deployments.  This  would  potentially  increase  the  number  of 
deployment opportunities for EU citizens and reduce the number of drop-outs.  

17. Interest from organisations active in humanitarian aid in the broader sense, as provided by 
the Regulation, needs to be strengthened. EU Aid Volunteers are deployed in activities such 
as resilience building, linking relief, rehabilitation and development, various humanitarian aid 
related  sectors  (water,  sanitation  and  hygiene,  gender,  logistics)  but  also  in  development 
projects  on  food  security,  poverty  reduction  and  economic  resilience.  Harvesting  further 
synergies  with  existing  Commission  programmes  and  projects  is  already  among  the 
objectives set in the Commission Annual Work Programme for 2018.    

18.  The  Commission  acknowledges  the  need  to  improve  consistency  of  the  approach  to 
volunteering in third countries with other EU volunteering schemes. Coherence and synergies 
with  the  European  Voluntary  Service  and  the  European  Solidarity  Corps  should  be  sought. 
The  complementarity  between  the  humanitarian  and  development  sectors  should  be 
optimised.  

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19.  During  the  initial  implementation  period,  the  focus  has  been  mainly  on  organisational 
development.  The  gradual  shift  of  focus  from  funding  processes  (supporting  volunteer 
management  or  organisational  capability  and  capacity)  to  humanitarian  impact-oriented 
activities would help to address stakeholder expectations in this regard.  

20.  The  better  identification  of  the  impact  would  make  the  initiative  more  attractive  to 
organisations and volunteers and help improve its implementation. A monitoring framework 
has  been  set  up  in  line  with  the  initiative’s  intervention  logic.  Currently,  it  exclusively 
collects  quantitative  data;  this  should  be  completed  with  qualitative  data  on  the  impact  of 
projects  relating  to  the  humanitarian  sector,  disaster  risk  management  or  linking  relief, 
rehabilitation and development. Performance indicators should be reviewed in terms of their 
relevance and the feasibility of collecting reliable, sensible and comparable data. In addition 
to  the  current  performance  indicators  for  the  deployment  of  volunteers,  performance 
indicators  should  be  developed  in  relation  to  progress  in  capacity  building  and  technical 
assistance, which absorb the majority of the initiative's budget. These would help measure the 
initiative’s  impact  on  local  communities,  participating  organisations  and  volunteers  and 
highlight  the  links  between  EU  Aid  Volunteers  projects  and  humanitarian  aid/disaster 
preparedness  projects.  Better  cooperation  with  the  humanitarian  aid  field  offices  and  EU 
Delegations,  including  on  monitoring  of  EU  Aid  Volunteers  projects  should  be  further 
explored. 

5. THE WAY FORWARD 

21.  The  evaluation  provides  useful  analyses  and  insights  into  the  implementation  of  the 
initiative,  including  current  shortcomings  and  suggests  areas  for  further  improvement.  The 
Commission is taking forward the findings and recommendations of the evaluation in a two-
pronged  approach:  by  considering  actions  that  can  be  implemented  in  the  short  to  medium 
term within the current legal framework on the one hand and actions  that would require more 
fundamental changes into the EU Aid Volunteers legislation. 

22. On the first set of actions, the results of the evaluation will immediately feed back into the 
programme  design  and  allocation  of  resources.  The  Commission  is  already  working  on 
actions  to  be  implemented  from  now  until  the  end  of  the  current  implementation  period  in 
2020 with a view to speed up processes, simplify administrative procedures, improve support 
for  interested  organisations,  further  promote  the  funding  opportunities  and  share  success 
stories. For example this will be achieved through a further simplification of the certification 
process for organisations with Framework Partnership Agreements avoiding any duplication 
within the two administrative procedures, shortening of the electronic forms for certification, 
acceleration of the duration from publication of the call to deployment of volunteers, scaling 
up of promotion activities to showcase the impact of volunteers in the field. Another key area 
is  to  increase  the  deployment  of  EU  Aid  Volunteers  in  the  Commission's  humanitarian  aid 
and disaster risk reduction and development cooperation projects. 

23. The second set of actions is linked to the ongoing Commission's work on the future of EU 
programmes under the next Multiannual Financial Framework. The findings from this interim 
evaluation  will  usefully  contribute  to  shaping  the  Commission's  proposal  for  spending 
programmes beyond 2020. In this respect the Commission will strive to achieve a significant 

7 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
simplification  of  procedures  by  removing  the  elements  that  slow  down  the  deployment  of 
volunteers  and  create  a  significant  administrative  burden  for  participating  organisations. 
Synergies  and  streamlining  with  other  EU  volunteering  schemes,  notably  the  European 
Solidarity Corps will be sought. The Commission will aim at providing more clarity for EU 
citizens seeking volunteering opportunities inside and outside the EU. Better alignment with 
the  EU  objectives  on  linking  relief,  rehabilitation  and  development  and  humanitarian  aid-
development  will  be  considered  to  increase  participation  by  humanitarian  and  development 
organisations and volunteering opportunities. 

24.  While  building  upon  experience 
the 
recommendations in the interim evaluation, the Commission will continue to implement and 
further  develop  the  initiative  working  closely  with  Member  States,  EU  institutions  and 
bodies, organisations and citizens. Feedback from stakeholders will continue to be the main 
driver  for  improvements,  leading  to  a  greater  impact  of  the  initiative  in  the  next  phase  of 
implementation until 2020 and beyond. 

learnt  and  addressing 

to  date, 

lessons 

8