The following concerns and questions should be taken as the point of departure for the Evaluation:

The comparative advantage of ITC

1. What is the development relevance of ITC’s activities in relation to the overarching objectives defined in the Doha Development Agenda and the Millennium Declaration?
2. What is the value-added of ITC’s interventions in relation to the international trade and development community, particularly in comparison with other international organizations, such as WTO, UNCTAD and UNIDO.
3. To what extent has the development in the international trade agenda and the shift in focus of the WTO and UNCTAD during the past decade influenced the role and comparative advantage of ITC?
4. To what extent does ITC co-ordinate and make use of potential synergies with other actors, at headquarters level and in the field? How well do the multi-agency interventions within trade and development work, including ITC’s role with regards to IF and JITAP?
   
   

   The performance of ITC’s Interventions
   

5. To what extent does ITC interventions meet the objectives that have been set for them? How and to what extent are ITC policies adapted to the achievement of these objectives; and how clear, explicit and measurable are ITC’s objectives? What factors inhibit ITC’s ability to achieve its goals? Is the ITC Management performing efficiently in achieving the objectives and reaching the goals?
6. How far has it been possible to achieve concrete results - outputs and outcomes - within the area of trade promotion? And to which degree are benefits sustainable? What has been the outcome, efficiency and relevance of ITC’s interventions - at the national, regional and international level - targeted towards (i) trade policies and strategies; (ii) the national infrastructure for trade promotion, import management and export development; (iii) the support services for trade promotion; (iv) the training institutions; and (v) the sector and enterprise level?
7. Where have bottlenecks and key potential risks occurred, e.g. in the international, regional and national enabling environment or in government policies, strategies and plans as well as national rules and regulations and national institutional capacity; and how have they affected the output and outcome of ITC interventions?
8. Which type of activities and interventions are most the efficient and effective - horizontal/multilateral efforts or targeted interventions in individual countries? Quality versus quantity? Does the success of an intervention depend on the region and/or the level of development? Is the timeframe for the different interventions appropriate?
   
   

   The capacity of ITC and Donor Funding Modalities

9. How do the internal ITC systems for follow-up, monitoring, evaluation and feedback work? Are the ITC results indicators relevant and appropriate for the ITC "results based management"? Are the monitoring systems sufficiently developed to allow management to take appropriate actions timely?
10. How is ITC’s performance in co-operating with other partners - such as governmental institutions, other donors, sister organizations - at headquarter level and at country level?
11. Does the ITC Secretariat have an appropriate level of resources and capacity for handling the activities with due quality and efficiency? Are the programmes and projects in line with the ITC´s capacity and comparative advantage?
12. Is the level of financing appropriate? Does the flow of funds function properly (timing, individual regulations, core funds vs. earmarked funds, etc.)? Is there sufficient predictability in the funding from ITC’s point of view (multi-annual vs. annual commitments); and are requests for funding timely seen from the donors' perspective?

On each issue the Evaluation shall point to ways by which ITC can enhance the results and impact of its trade and development co-operation, and contribute more to poverty-reduction efforts as well as to the international trade and development community.

The service provider is expected to elaborate more specific questions within the framework outlined above. Within that scope, it is also encouraged to add questions and issues that help address the objectives of the Evaluation. The outputs of the service provider, however, must be fully compliant with the letter and spirit of these TOR.