The Trade and Domestic Market Enhancement Programme (TDMEP) assisted the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry in the implementation and execution of key policy reforms in order to sustain Egypt’s economic development and further integration into the global and regional economy. Specifically, the programme implemented trade and domestic market related reforms that would increase Egypt’s benefit from international trade policy and foster industrial development, in particular improving the quality infrastructure necessary for trade liberalisation. The programme was designed to be implemented through two separate, closely interlinked components for a budget of EUR 20 million:

• Component 1: Foreign trade, export promotion and trade agreements;
• Component 2: Industrial development and quality infrastructure.

We provided strategic advice throughout the project to the Government of Egypt and relevant external co-operation services through an independent assessment of TDMEP and key recommendations to improve the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and added value of the action. Our observations placed an emphasis on expected sustainability and impact of the programme.

The key lessons and recommendations of this assignment were shared through a Stakeholder Group Meeting with 60 persons representative of the beneficiaries and key administrators. The recommendations served to inform the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Egypt on the state of implementation of the Programme and provided inputs for decision-makers on immediate actions to increase the impact of the programme interventions for the remaining period of implementation of the Financing Agreement.

• Analysed and assessed relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and added value of the TEDMEP
• Described the development co-operation context
• Analysed the intervention logic/logical framework
• Collected assessment data, including limitations of information identified
• Presented findings through a report and final presentation