It is an initiative led by DG INTPA to reflect on the possibilities offered by 'innovative' evaluation methods to respond to the difficulties that traditional evaluation missions inevitably face in "hard to reach areas". A hard-to-reach area (HRA) is an area that is difficult to access due to conflict, man-made or natural disasters, or other physical, logistical, security or health-related obstacles; this definition also includes Fragile and Conflict-Affected states (FCAS).
The HRA initiative started with a Cycle of 7 Conferences on Evaluation in hard-to-reach areas. The main lessons learned and the methods explained during the conferences were grouped into a Call-to-Action paper on Evaluation in Hard-to-Reach Areas. The entire initiative is now collected in an online space on Capacity4Dev. This space is part of a larger initiative called Evaluation in Crisis.
This initiative provides a call to Operational and Project Managers to keep evaluating, even when the areas of intervention are hard to reach, or when local circumstances make it difficult to gather information or conduct activities in the field (e.g., conflict-affected areas, physical inaccessibility, health-related hindrances, etc.), given that it is safe to do so. These considerations must be shared and discussed with evaluation contractors, to allow them to adapt their approach and evaluation methods to better address this hard-to-reach local environment.
This initiative provides the initial push when there is a need to adapt evaluation methods to fragile contexts and hard-to-reach areas. A traditional approach to evaluation in fragile or conflict-affected states and, more generally, in hard-to-reach areas is destined to fail: the number of professional evaluators available to travel to these countries is limited and the security risks during in-country travel make conventional field missions unrealistic, particularly in the most remote areas. In response to this, various development partners have started encouraging the use of methods and techniques, tried and tested in other fields, but that are innovative in an evaluation context. These include the use of geo-spatial data, surveys administered by local enumerators, voice or data surveys by phone or tablet, location tracking, communication through online platforms, etc.
This initiative is addressed to evaluation managers in the EU Delegations and in DG INTPA headquarters, as well as partners and professional evaluators in the development field. It may also provide useful insights to colleagues from other Commission DGs and services.
The HRA initiative is gathered in the Capacity4dev space on Evaluation in Hard-to-Reach-Areas, including:
Data/information. An evaluation, and more especially those conducted in highly complex or chaotic contexts, such as HRA, starts with a good and solid preparation. You must always adapt the prepared methodology to changing circumstances. Stay creative and flexible, and adapt your tools to the environment. When in doubt about the feasibility and usefulness of an evaluation, carry out an evaluability assessment.
Remember to:
Timeframe. Evaluations can be conducted at different times of the intervention cycle and as a result, serve different purposes:
Skills. Evaluations in HRA that use some of the methods proposed during this initiative, will need the evaluation team to have the necessary skills to be able to apply the identified methodology and be able to analyse the results obtained and draw conclusions. These skills will need to be addressed and requested in the evaluation’s terms of reference (ToR), or related commissioning document.
Facilities and materials. Some of the techniques presented require specific materials (e.g. mobile phones, tablets), facilities (e.g. field locations to gather enumerators and load their data), or even registration to online resources (e.g. professional satellite data) or analysis tools (e.g. Artificial Intelligence tools). These should be foreseen in the evaluation contractors’ approach and budgeting.
Financial costs and sources. The use of the proposed methods, as well as the necessary skills, in the evaluation team have to be taken into account in the terms of reference, so that the additional costs of the use of these methods can be planned for by the responding consortia in the RfS.
Tips and tricks Evaluations in HRA are not business as usual, which is why the evaluation team should be transparent, in their reports, about the evaluation's validity and limitations, and about the reasons why specific methodologies were chosen. This includes limitations encountered by the evaluators when accessing beneficiaries in HRAs, or in obtaining comprehensive data on results, or doubts they may have on the validity of their findings.
For INTPA Staff: For methodological support throughout the evaluation cycle, from planning and designing, to conducting your evaluations, including its dissemination and follow-up, please contact our helpdesk for advice: INTPA-EVALUATION-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu
For further information, any revision or comment, please contact INTPA-ICM-GUIDE@ec.europa.eu
Published by INTPA.D.4 - Quality and results, evaluation, knowledge management. Last update May 2025