The Special Evaluation Office of the Belgian Development Cooperation (SEO) is responsible for the evaluation of the Belgian Development Cooperation. The office plans and carries out the evaluations in cooperation with the Belgian development actors and the partner countries.
The SEO is an external evaluation office under the administrative authority of the President of the Management Committee of the FPS Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. This status guarantees its independence in the choice, implementation and dissemination of its evaluations.
Every year, the SEO publishes a report containing the results of the evaluations. It sends this annual report to the Minister of Development Cooperation, who can comment on it. The annual report is then discussed in the federal Parliament. The Special Evaluator presents the results and recommendations of the evaluations at a session of the Committee on External Relations.
Evaluation helps to account for the use of public funds, to draw lessons to improve Belgian Development Cooperation, and to support decision-making.
Read our recent evaluations from 2021 to date.
Read our evaluations from 2005 to 2020.
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Tasks
The Special Evaluation Office has six statutory tasks, laid down in the Royal Decree (RD) of 25 February 2010, and its amended version of 25 April 2014.
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Evaluation criteria
The evaluations are carried out according to the six evaluation criteria for development cooperation established by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC).
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Evaluation policy
Read more about our evaluation policy and programme.
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Collaborations
The Special Evaluation Office cooperates with various actors and is a member of several national and international organisations.
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History
The Special Evaluation Office has exists in its current form since 2010, but its origins lie in the late 1990s.
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Evaluations
The SEO manages its own evaluations, follows up on evaluations in cooperation with different actors and provides support to other evaluations. Learn more about our evaluation reports, our summaries and the responses of the development actors.
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Joint evaluations
The Special Evaluation Office (co-)finances several evaluations that are carried out in cooperation with other actors, such as the Directorate General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD), actors of non-governmental cooperation and evaluation departments in other countries.
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Support to other evaluations
In parallel with the implementation of its evaluation programme, the Special Evaluation Office supports and follows up on the evaluations of organisations funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation.
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Annual reports
Each year, the SEO reports to the Parliament and the Minister of Development Cooperation. Consult all annual reports here.
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Certification
The SEO is responsible for certifying the evaluation capacity of all Belgian development actors, financed with federal funds. Find more information about certification rounds, manuals and frequently asked questions here.
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News
Stay up to date with news about our evaluations.
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Events
Stay up to date with information about our upcoming or past events.
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Calls for tender
Calls for tender of the Special Evaluation Office
About the Special Evaluation Office
Our evaluations have three objectives: to report on the use of public funds, to draw lessons and to support policy-making. Read ...
Annual reports
Each year, the SEO reports to the Parliament and the Minister of Development Cooperation. Consult all annual reports here.