Policy paper: Conflict, Stability and Security Fund: Serious and Organised Crime annual review summaries 2020 to 2021

All Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) programmes are reviewed carefully each year. These reviews assess:

• technical and programme management standards including financial and risk management, value for money, conflict and gender sensitivity
• contextual factors such as changes to the political environment
• the outputs and outcomes during the year

Lessons learned are also identified.

An expert team conducts these reviews and include at least one team member who is independent from the programme. The team assesses at 2 levels: output (the direct result of programme activities) and outcome (the changes that these outputs deliver). Assessment scores are on a scale of 4, where outputs or outcomes meet or exceed expectations, to 1, where most targets were not met.

The CSSF team aims to publish information for all programmes. However, because some of the CSSF’s work is very sensitive, we cannot publish details of all programmes. The 2 main reasons for this are:

• to protect national security
• for the safety and security of beneficiaries, partners and partner governments

The 2 largest CSSF partners, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID), merged to form the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). As these reviews cover the 2020 to 2021 financial year, they still refer to the lead department at that time.