Romania – Evaluation consultancy services – Evaluarea Acordului de Parteneriat 2021-2027 Etapa 3

In accordance with Article 44 of Regulation (EU) No 1060/2021, the Member State or Managing Authority is obliged to draw up an evaluation plan that may cover one or more programmes. The evaluations will be carried out by internal or external experts who are operationally independent. The evaluations will be carried out from the perspective of criteria such as effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence, added value for the Union, inclusiveness, non-discrimination and visibility, etc. The evaluation plan for the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027 sets out the general framework for the implementation of the evaluation of the most important strategic document of the Cohesion Policy in Romania, namely the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027. This was approved by the Partnership Agreement Management Coordination Committee at its meeting on 18 October 2023. The main objective of the Evaluation Plan is to establish the evaluation studies that are to be carried out to support the strategic implementation of the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027, as well as the good preparation of the next programming period. Specific objectives of the plan: To provide credible and robust information, useful for the evidence-based decision-making process, regarding the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027 and the next programming period; To improve the quality of evaluations through adequate planning, the involvement of stakeholders, the early identification of data needed for evaluations and the facilitation of data collection planning; To ensure that funding and evaluation management resources are adequate. The users of the Evaluation Plan are the Partnership Agreement Management Coordination Committee, the Ministry of European Investment and Projects, the European Commission, the managing authorities, the Central Evaluation Unit within the MIPE, the external evaluators who are to be involved in carrying out the planned evaluations, as well as any other actor or person interested in the evaluation of the Cohesion Policy in Romania. In this context, the need arises to carry out the evaluation studies included in the Evaluation Plan of the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027. The subject of the contract is divided into lots: Lot 1: Evaluation of the impact of simplification and digitalisation measures on reducing administrative burden on beneficiaries. Contract objective: Lot 1: Carrying out the following evaluations: 1. Evaluation of AP 5 - "Evaluation of the impact of simplification and digitalisation measures on reducing administrative burden on OP1 beneficiaries" 2. Evaluation of AP 9 - "Evaluation of the impact of simplification and digitalisation measures on reducing administrative burden on OP2 beneficiaries" 3. Evaluation of AP 12 - "Evaluation of the impact of simplification and digitalisation measures on reducing administrative burden on OP3 beneficiaries" 4. Evaluation of AP 15 - "Evaluation of the impact of simplification and digitalisation measures on reducing administrative burden on OP4 beneficiaries" 5. Evaluation of AP 21 - "Evaluation of the impact of simplification and digitalisation measures on reducing administrative burden on OP5 beneficiaries" Lot 2: Evaluation of the impact of interventions on women and on the Roma ethnic population. The contract objective related to Lot 2 is to carry out the following evaluations: 1. Evaluation of AP 18 - "Impact of interventions on women"; 2. Evaluation of AP 19 - "Impact of interventions on the Roma ethnic population". Number of days until which clarifications can be requested before the deadline for submission of tenders: 20 days. The contracting authority will respond clearly and fully to all requests for clarification/information, on the 11th day before the deadline for submission of tenders.