Paribartan conducted the final evaluation of the UNNATI Programme- Access to Finance Project in September 2018-January 2019. The five-year project implemented by NIRAS, UNCDF, and NRB. The project was funded by DANODA. Thi assignment delivers the final evaluation of the UNNATI Access to Finance (A2F) component 1.2, implemented by UNCDF and NRB in Province 1 (seven districts in the Eastern Development Region) and funded by the Danish Government from March 2014 to December 2018. NIRAS Denmark contracts Paribartan, an evaluation consultant, for this evaluation.  Component 1.2 aims at improving access to and use of financial products and services by an additional 250,000 rural households and MSMEs in Nepal using USD 9.9 million planned resources. 

This evaluation explores the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, likely impact, lessons learned, and good practices of the component. It also analyses the achievement of the component at the outcome and output level within effectiveness parameters. Paribartan has applied an interactive approach with mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative, for this evaluation. This includes both the contribution analysis and beneficiary assessment approach, strengthening the contribution of the A2F component towards the UNNATI Programmer’s immediate outcome. This approach includes the following methods: a beneficiary survey among 195 randomly sampled clients; focus group discussions (FGDs) with 25 smallholders’ groups; key informant interviews (KIIs) with 35 individual experts, and data verification and analysis as per the A2F performance indicators. Each method applied a separate customized tool in the field. The evaluation findings, conclusions, and recommendations are presented to the client can be found directly from NIRAS.