European Union's PHARE Access Program

"Facilitating Progress in Central and Eastern Europe"

How can the European Union (EU) effectively manage large development programs, which are helping several Central and Eastern European nations transition into market economies?

Since 1996, MWH has been helping the EU accomplish this goal. MWH experts have led and now actively support the consortium responsible for evaluating the EU's comprehensive PHARE ACCESS Program.

The PHARE program is an "institution building" program aimed at preparing candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the organization.

The EU has allocated over € 9 billion to help the nations through a period of massive economic restructuring and political change. A key goal of the development program is to encourage social and economic cohesion among old and new EU members.

Multi-Sector Development Programs

MWH experts have played an important program management role in these initiatives. These address all sectors of the nations' economies. This includes diverse areas such as education, health, private sector development, infrastructure, environment and energy.

Our responsibilities on these multi-sector development programs include:

• Establishing 13 national and regional offices to implement a full range of evaluations based on EU and local expertise.
• Analyzing how PHARE programs were implemented.
• Assessing values of various programs.
• Making recommendations for improving the programs' management and effectiveness.

MWH's comprehensive evaluation process has contributed significantly to PHARE's accountability. It has helped the EU demonstrate to the European Parliament and member nations that PHARE funds are being properly used.

As a result, the PHARE program has obtained increased funding for its development efforts.