Report

Evaluation of GGGI Thailand Country Program (2018)

At a Glance

Publication Date March 2018
Format pdf
Country Thailand
Thematic Areas Cross Cutting, Green Buildings and Industry, Climate Resilient and Green Growth

GGGI has been working with the Royal Thai Government since  2014, with support structured around (1) Industry Greenhouse Gas Reduction Roadmap to support the implementation of Thailand’s Climate Change Master Plan (2014-2016); (2) Accelerating implementation of Thailand Nationally Determinate Contribution (2016- Ongoing); and (3) Thai auto parts supply chain development through energy efficiency (TAPEE) (2016- Ongoing).

Objective and scope

The objective of this Evaluation was (1) to assess the performance of pillars of the Country Program, including its impact to date and the robustness of the theory of change; and (2) to make actionable recommendations to improve its current and future delivery approach and impact.

Key evaluation questions

  1. How relevant and significant is GGGI program to the Thai Government’s national and international green growth and climate change priorities?
  2. How effectively and efficiently is the program and its related outputs being implemented?
  3. Is the program bringing about the desired policy, institutional and financial changes necessary to achieve the intermediate and strategic outcomes?
  4. To what extent are the benefits generated by the program sustainable?
  5. Have cross cutting issues such as safeguards and social inclusion been integrated into the program?

Key findings

  • GGGI’s activities in Thailand provide a good fit with both the Royal Thai Government’s requests and GGGI’s mission and objectives overall; counterparts are interested in GGGI’s technical and economic expertise, international network, potential to access financing, but ensuring relevance is insufficient to ensure uptake.
  • Stakeholder engagement from the GHG Roadmap is most significant impact so far. Most stakeholders expressed a positive perception of GGGI and a willingness to engage with them in the future. Multiple stakeholders were impressed that Country Team engaged the industrial sector in ways not normally seen in Thailand during the GHG Roadmap process.
  • GGGI is the ‘new kid on the block’ with limited credibility established so far and the Country Team must continuously prove themselves. Small country teams may not be able to cover all desired skillsets internally, and should not be expected to do so; and budget challenges and limitations harm credibility.
  • Project logframes do not make sufficient links between outputs and outcomes and impacts. Moreover, impact and long-term sustainability are also influenced by institutional dynamics within the Country; the choice of counterpart is important, and the most appropriate entity may change over time.

Recommendations

  • The Country Representative should coordinate all stakeholder engagement and periodically review the appropriateness of the counterpart agency for projects
  • Make significant stakeholder engagement a cornerstone of projects, especially in the early stages of GGGI’s country presence to help establish long term relationships and credibility.
  • Seek a vetting process with key stakeholders for new project concepts and assess key inputs before committing significant resources.
  • Ensure clear path of follow up and long-term ownership, risk tolerance, well-aligned priorities, flexibility of planning approach, and sufficient and stable resources.
  • Public all key outputs in the local language to facilitate use by targeted stakeholders.

Management response

  • Contained in the main evaluation report.

Evaluation summary 

Background documents                        

  • An Approach Paper was published in October 2017 providing an overview of the Thailand program as well as the proposed evaluation design, methodology, and workplan.