Publications

“Weiterkommen!” (“Moving Forward!”) is the first and largest funding programme of the Centre for Cultural Participation Baden-Württemberg (ZfKT). It supports the funded teams in jointly engaging in learning, development, and experimentation processes. All funded teams share one overarching objective: to make progress with a concrete project that leads to greater cultural participation, cultural education, and mediation. The programme was developed in 2021 and launched for the first time that same year. At the same time, an evaluation was commissioned to provide ongoing academic support and assessment of the first three funding rounds. SYSPONS conducted this evaluation from 2022 to 2025.

Center for Cultural Participation Baden-Württemberg (ZfKT)

The State Equal Opportunities Act serves to implement the objective of equality between women and men enshrined in the Basic Law and, with few exceptions, applies to the entire public service of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (cf. Section 2 LGG). The Ministry for Children, Youth, Family, Equality, Refugees and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKJFGFI) commissioned Syspons GmbH, in cooperation with the Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) at the Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS), to evaluate the so-called experimental clause pursuant to Section 6a of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Equal Opportunities Act (LGG).

Ministry for Children, Youth, Family, Equality, Refugees, and Integration of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKJFGFI)

Syspons was commissioned by GIZ, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to evaluate the project “Public Electricity Supply 4.0” in Peru. The programme was implemented from 2019 to 2024 and aimed to increase the energy efficiency of public utilities and promote the use of renewable energy by establishing appropriate regulatory, institutional, and technical framework conditions. In doing so, the Peruvian population was to benefit from a secure, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective electricity supply.

The evaluation included, among other things, a comprehensive document analysis as well as qualitative interviews and focus groups conducted during a field mission with stops in Lima, Arequipa, Trujillo, and Iquitos. Based on the data collected, concrete recommendations for action for GIZ in Peru were derived.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

Syspons was commissioned by GIZ to conduct the final evaluation of pilot projects in Kenya and Uganda funded by the Smart Communities Coalition Innovation Fund (SCCIF). The aim of the evaluation was to systematically assess the fund and five selected projects according to the OECD-DAC criteria, with a particular focus on their scalability, employment effects, CO₂ reductions, and compliance with the “Do-No-Harm” principle.

The pilot projects included privately driven initiatives in fragile contexts, covering areas such as solar energy for e-mobility, internet access, agricultural production, and drinking water supply. The evaluation was based on document analysis, interviews, and on-site case studies, and provided practical recommendations for the further development of the projects as well as for similar future initiatives.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

The initiative "Cooperation with Muslim communities: Municipal exchange of expertise" was funded by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) together with the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs (BMI) from March 2021 to August 2022. It offered municipalities a forum, moderated by Syspons, in which they could share their experiences and good practice in working with Muslim actors. The final report, written by Syspons, provides examples of good practices and ways of generating momentum as well as an overview of the concept of the initiative.

Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)

The study was commissioned by the Deutscher Frauenrat (National Council of German Women's Organizations), who hosted the W7 Dialogue as part of Germany’s G7 presidency in 2022, and was conducted by the Syspons GmbH in co-creation with local experts based in three case study countries.
The aim of this study is to provide insight into the extent to which the G7 and G20 gender equality goals have been implemented so far, and to develop policy recommendations to further advance member states’ performance. The study focuses on the upcoming G7 and G20 Presidency countries – Italy (2024 G7 Presidency), Brazil (2024 G20 Presidency), and South Africa (2025 G20 Presidency), and analyses their implementation of commitments to (1) women’s economic empowerment, (2) the promotion of climate justice and (3) the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ*) people in society.

Deutscher Frauenrat (National Council of German Women’s Organizations)

As part of the project "Strategic Cooperation with International Organizations", GIZ supported various international organizations (WB, EU, UN, IFAD) and the international network Global Delivery Intiative (GDI) with human and financial resources. The evaluation results show that the project succeeded in supporting key reform processes within the partner organizations. In addition, the Syspons team also identified a number of levers to make the support to partner organizations and networks in similar projects even more efficient and effective.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

The project "heimspiel.für Bildung" in the Hamburg neighborhood of Neuwiedenthal works together with local actors to create a "local community of responsibility" for education and counseling in order to support kids' and teenagers' education. As part of the final evaluation, Syspons examined the extent to which the project was able to achieve its goals and developed impulses for a possible continuation of project elements and follow-up options.

heimspiel. Für Bildung

The BMBF has commissioned Syspons GmbH to evaluate the nationwide competition "Democratic Action", which is funded within the framework of democracy education and education for democracy. The evaluation covered the success monitoring of the competition since 2015, taking into account current developments, as well as the associated questions of goal achievement, impact, and cost-effectiveness. The results led to recommendations for the further de-velopment of the competition.

Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Syspons was commissioned by ZUG on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety to conduct a strategic evaluation of IKI projects in the area of „Forest Landscape Restoration“. The evaluation served to assess the achievements of the IKI FLR projects and identify relevant lessons learned. To this end, Syspons conducted a contribution analysis and a social network analysis of six FLR projects in El Salvador. The data collection process included qualitative interviews, focus group discussions, stakeholder workshops, and an online survey. Based on the results of the evaluation, strategic recommendations for the future design and implementation of IKI FLR projects were defined.

Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH

On behalf of the Federal Cultural Foundation, Syspons evaluated the programme "TRAFO - Models for Culture in Transition". In the evaluation, Syspons investigated the impact of TRAFO from the regions of the first funding round on the regional and Germany-wide discourse on culture in rural areas. This was ascertained by means of a discourse and network analysis. In addition to measuring the impact, the focus throughout the evaluation was on joint learning and the development of recommendations for action for the second funding round.

German Federal Cultural Foundation

Syspons has been commissioned by the Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF) to evaluate the Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) initiative, investigating the impacts of the CmiA initiative on livelihoods of smallholder cotton farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of the evaluation was twofold: First, it sought to assess to what extent the CmiA initiative has contributed to achieving positive impacts among the smallholder farmers. Second, the evaluation served the objective of learning, by identifying which elements of the implementation work well and which ones do not, in order to improve the initiative in the future.

Aid by Trade Foundation

Commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Syspons conducted a Central Project Evaluation of the project „Rural electrification through renewable energies”. The evaluation was conducted along the OECD-DAC criteria. Next to serving the project’s accountability, the evaluation was used to generate learning experiences for the follow-up phase. Data was collected during a two-week field mission.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

Civil society engagement plays an important role in social cohesion and local integration. Since 2019, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, with the help of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), has been supporting the social engagement of more than 50 Muslim communities in the funding approach "Mosques for Integration. Opening, networking and cooperation" within the framework of the German Islam Conference (DIK). Syspons accompanies the funding approach and evaluates its goal achievement. In the DIK interview, we explain what exactly we do, how we understand our mission and what motivates us in particular.

German Islam Conference (DIK)

Syspons conducted the first strategic evaluation of the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC)'s Good Governance Engagement from 2007 to 2017 on behalf of ADC. The overarching aim of the evaluation was to generate insights relevant for the future development of ADC's Good Governance engagement. To this end, Syspons evaluated the Good Governance engagement along the criteria relevance, effectiveness/impact, efficiency and coherence-coordination-cooperation (CCC).

Austrian Development Agency (ADA)

Syspons supported the German Investment and Development Company (DEG) in conducting research and writing a publication on gender-lens investing. The aim of the assignment was to investigate the effects of gender-lens investing on the economic promotion of women as well as local and global development effects and to review the contributions and offers of DEG in this context, among others by developing a theory of change. To this end, Syspons conducted a comprehensive literature review and developed the publication in close cooperation with DEG.

German Investment and Development Company (DEG)

The evaluation examined the interaction of the organisational and operational structure (structures and processes) as well as the strategies (e.g. corporate strategy, sustainability programme) and instruments (e.g. Corporate Sustainability Handprint, sustainable procurement, sustainable mobility) at GIZ, which are designed to enable or promote sustainable action in operational procedures domestic and abroad. The aim of this strategic Business Evaluation, was recording and describing the actual state of the operational sustainability management in the GIZ. On this basis, analyses were implemented (including governance analysis, risk analysis in the field of sustainable procurement, scenario and potential analysis in the field of sustainable mobility), which identified the need for action and improvement in corporate sustainability management.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

On behalf of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Syspons carries out the mid-term evaluation of the programme “Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools”. The programme encompasses seven projects establishing bilateral graduate schools in Africa, Latin America and Asia in cooperation with German universities. The purpose of the evaluation is to contribute to learning and accountability through an assessment of the OECD-DAC criteria relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, as well as (projected) impacts and sustainability. In addition, the quality of the M&E systems, gender aspects and the incorporation of ICT in teaching and research are examined as cross-cutting issues.

German Academic Exchange Service

Within the framework of the "Einstieg Deutsch" (Entry Point German) project, adult education centres, associations and other organisations throughout Germany are implementing learning opportunities for initial language orientation. The German Adult Education Association (DVV) has commissioned Syspons to scientifically monitor and evaluate the project. In cooperation with the University of Paderborn, Syspons identified critical success factors, areas of improvement and challenges. The presentation gives an insight into the results.

German Adult Education Association (DVV)

To gain insights into key stakeholders in Zambia, Southern Province, working on the prevention of and response to violence against women and girls (VAWG), their cooperation and capacity needs, the GIZ Partnerships for Prevention (PfP) programme commissioned Syspons GmbH to conduct a comprehensive stakeholder and network analysis. The analysis identified key stakeholders’ efforts to prevent VAWG, examined their activities and forms of engagements, analysed the extent and quality of cooperation between stakeholders and identified capacity needs for increased cooperation.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

The Challenge Fund Powering Agriculture is a multi-donor initiative of USAID, Sida and GIZ. It aims to promote sustainable innovations for accelerating the use of renewable energies in agricultural value chains and increasing agricultural productivity in developing countries. In the evaluation, Syspons analyzed the structures and processes of the Challenge Fund and its initially attained impacts. Moreover, it developed recommendations for the future strategic direction of the Fund.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

The Special Evaluation Office of the Belgian Development Cooperation commissioned Syspons and Nuffic with an impact evaluation of the Belgian university development cooperation. The focus was on developing a methodology that was as robust as possible and appropriate to the topic, e.g. to measure the impact of scholarship programmes. To that effect, Syspons and Nuffic carried out a detailed evaluability analysis. Based on their findings, the partners evaluated the Belgian university cooperation using a novel mix of methods and a quasi-experimental design.

Special Evaluation Office of the Belgian Development Cooperation

In 2010, the Berlin Senate adopted its industrial policy strategy, the "Berlin Industrial Master Plan". It was developed by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Enterprises (SenWEB) together with chambers, associations, trade unions and other partners. Syspons designed and moderated the participatory process of updating the master plan from 2017 onwards. The master plan linked here is the result of this process and documents measures in four fields of action. For the strategic governance of the implementation process, Syspons also developed an integrated project management and transferred it to the master plan management office.

Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Enterprises (SenWEB)

Commissioned by Enabel Belgian Development Agency, Syspons is carrying out an evaluation of the organisation’s results orientation, assessing to what extent it is “fit for purpose”. The evaluation encompasses the quality and quantity of results products, the quality of result-based management processes (including how well the information is used on different levels of the organisation) as well as the factors which determine the quality of results products and their use for steering, accountability and learning. In doing so, the evaluation assesses to what extent results management system is “fit-for-future” and what kind of changes need to be made to improve it.

Enabel Belgian Development Agency

The voluntary humanitarian organisation Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V. (Die Johanniter) offers initial orientation courses for asylum seekers. These courses have been further developed by Die Johanniter with a focus on conveying values and fundamental rights. Syspons evaluated this model project. The report serves the purpose of learning as well as the measurement of impact and legitimation of the project towards the public.

St. John Accident Assistance (JUH)

The gender strategy of the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) addresses the issues of corporate culture, gender equality, gender competence, processes and accountability in the work of the GIZ. Syspons evaluated the strategy on the basis of an impact model developed jointly with the GIZ. The report summarises the evaluation results and illustrates them using tangible examples.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

In 2016, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (FES) convened a commission of experts consisting of representatives from politics, administration, business and society. The Commission was tasked to draw up guiding principles for Germany as a country of immigration. Syspons moderated the process of developing these guiding principles on behalf of the foundation. The final report contains the jointly developed guiding principles. Based on this output, Syspons moreover developed event formats for the dissemination of the guiding principles.

Friedrich-Ebert Foundation (FES)

Since 2015, the "Engaged City" program has been supporting the establishment of lasting civic engagement in cities and municipalities in Germany. Syspons has accompanied and helped to shape the development process of the participating cities, as well as preparing an impact analysis for the entire programme for the period 2015-2017. This video summarizes the results of an online survey from spring 2017 and indicates options of action for the participants in the engaged cities.

Körber Foundation

The project evaluations (PEV) of the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) were examined by Syspons in a meta-evaluation. The quality of the evaluations was systematically assessed using a detailed analysis grid. The results of the resultant report were presented at international conferences.

German Corporation for International Development (GIZ)

Syspons supported the Ministry of the Interior of the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein with the integration-focussed reception of refugees. The aim of the project was to improve the cooperation between the actors and to develop processes. As a pivotal product, Syspons conceptualized and graphically prepared ideal-typical support processes for linguistic and labour market-oriented integration. The linked presentation interactively presents these model support processes.

Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Interior, Rural Areas, Integration and Equality

Since 2015, the "Engaged City" program has been supporting the establishment of lasting civic engagement in cities and municipalities in Germany. Syspons has accompanied and helped to shape the development process of the participating cities, as well as preparing an impact analysis for the entire programme for the period 2015-2017. This video explains the role of impact and impact monitoring in the programme, how impact-oriented work works and how Syspons intends to evaluate the process.

Körber Foundation

Since 2015, the "Engaged City" program has been supporting the establishment of lasting civic engagement in cities and municipalities in Germany. Syspons has accompanied and helped to shape the development process of the participating cities, as well as preparing an impact analysis for the entire programme for the period 2015-2017. In this video, the interim results of an online survey and from the 1st Engagement Forum 2016 are presented and, based on these results, advice is given regarding the approach proven to be favorable.

Körber Foundation