Terms & Concepts
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Funding instruments & and policy frameworks
🔗The Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI–Global Europe) is the EU’s main external financing instrument for EU external action in 2021-2027. It brings together most previous geographic and thematic instruments into a single framework to fund cooperation with neighbourhood and partner countries, address global challenges, and support rapid response to crises.
🔗The Global Europe Results Framework (GERF) is the main results framework of the (NDICI–Global Europe).
🔗The Instrument for Pre‑Accession assistance (IPA III) serves as the European Union’s main financial mechanism to support reforms in the Western Balkans and Türkiye aiding their preparation for potential EU membership. Spanning the 2021-2027 period, IPA III aims to foster sustainable socio-economic development, enhance governance, and encourage regional cooperation, while placing strong emphasis on aligning with European Union standards and values.
🔗Instrument for Pre‑Accession assistance Results Framework (IPA III) is the results framework of IPA III.
🔗The Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) manages the financial and operational components of EU foreign policy and runs EU foreign policy actions and their financing.
🔗The Foreign Policy Instrument results framework (FPI RF) is the results framework of the FPI.
🔗The European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+) is the EU’s main investment framework under the Global Gateway and NDICI–Global Europe. It provides guarantees and blended finance to reduce risks and mobilise public and private investment for sustainable development in EU partner countries.
🔗EFSD+ Results Measurement Framework (EFSD+ ReMF) is the results framework of the EFSD+.
GAP III refers to the EU’s 🔗Third Gender Action Plan (2021-2025), and is the overarching EU policy framework for promoting gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment in external action; it sets priorities, expected results and indicators for gender related work across sectors.
Look under the "Sectors" page for the corresponding results chains & indicators for more information on 🔗GAP III indicators.
Results logic
A results framework is a tool used for planning, monitoring, and evaluating the effectiveness of a project or programme. It provides a structured approach to defining and measuring intended results, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and facilitating accountability.
The Results Frameworks most extensively covered in this Resource are the 🔗Global Europe Results Framework (GERF), 🔗the Instrument of Pre-Accession III (IPA III), and the 🔗 Foreign Policy Instrument Results Framework (FPI).
A logical framework (logframe) is a structured matrix that sets out an intervention’s results chain (from overall objective/impact to specific objectives/outcomes and outputs, together with indicators, baselines, targets and assumptions for each level, so that the underlying logic of the intervention and how results will be measured is clear for design, monitoring and reporting.
A results chain is a diagram depicting the logical links between different levels of results, from outputs to outcomes and impacts, illustrating how the achievement of one level leads to another if the assumptions hold true.
There are 🔗predefined results chains developed per for different sectors.
A results statement is a clear, concise description of the intended outputs, outcomes and impacts of a development intervention. It articulates what the initiative aims to achieve in terms of benefits to the target population or changes in a particular situation, helping to focus efforts and measure success.
These result levels should be represented in a Results Chain (see above) and reflected in the structure of the Logical Framework (see above).
Indicator types
An indicator is a variable specifying how performance can be measured and assessed.
Indicators form the basis of the intervention’s monitoring and evaluation system.
An indicator should be RACER:
- Relevant: The indicator should be closely linked to the objectives or results the project or policy aims to achieve, ensuring it measures what truly matters.
- Accepted: The indicator should be recognized and agreed upon by stakeholders, project partners, and users, promoting buy-in and shared understanding.
- Credible: The indicator must be reliable, unambiguous, and interpretable by non-experts, providing trustworthy information for decision-making.
- Easy: Data collection for the indicator should be feasible, cost-effective, and not overly complex, allowing for regular monitoring.
- Robust: The indicator should be resistant to manipulation and capable of producing consistent results under different conditions.
Predefined indicators are indicators defined centrally by the European Commission and are quality-assured by Quality Managers of the European Union External Action.
Predefined indicators comprise Corporate indicators for legal reporting (see below), other Corporate indicators (see below) and Sector/Thematic indicators (see below) and are pre-encoded in OPSYS/EU Funding and Tenders Portal (see below).
Consult or search the🔗list of predefined indicators in the EU Funding and Tenders Portal (OPSYS)
There are I. Corporate indicators for legal reporting and II. Other corporate indicators.
I. Corporate indicators for legal reporting are used to measure EU results obtained with the support of specific financial instruments. They are grouped in specific results frameworks. (See 🔗GERF and 🔗IPA III). Corporate indicators for legal reporting are easy to use, as they are supported by descriptions or detailed methodological notes. The reported values on corporate indicators can be aggregated, making the contributions to EU results by interventions and Implementing Partners visible.
✅ Corporate indicators for legal reporting must be used when relevant.
II. Other corporate indicators can be found in the 🔗 FPI RF, 🔗 GAP III, and 🔗 EFSD+.
✅Other corporate indicators must be used when relevant.
🔗Sector/thematic indicators are predefined indicators linked to a specific sector or thematic area (for example health, education, governance, climate, gender, digital), designed to capture typical results that recur across many interventions in that area so that information can be monitored, compared and, where relevant, aggregated at sector or thematic level.
All relevant projects should include at least one 🔗 gender‑related indicator (e.g., % of women beneficiaries). Other 🔗thematic indicators should be used when relevant.
Customised indicators are indicators that you design yourself for a specific intervention when none of the existing predefined indicators adequately capture an essential result. Customised indicators cannot be aggregated across interventions and therefore do not contribute to EU global results or visibility.
Systems & support tools
OPSYS is the European Commission's project management system. Among its many functions, it enables the encoding of intervention logframes and the reporting of results against indicators. Implementing partners access OPSYS through the 🔗Funding & Tender Portal.
Together, OPSYS and the F&TP form the European Union's central online system for managing EU-funded projects and programmes in partner countries. OPSYS is used to encode intervention logframes, select and manage indicators, and report results. All predefined indicators are already available in OPSYS, allowing users to select them directly when designing or updating an intervention.
For more information, please consult:
🔗Results and Monitoring - EXACT External Wiki - EN - EC Extranet Wiki
Methodological notes are short guidance documents that explain how an corporate indicator should be interpreted, measured and reported. The methodological notes cover, technical specifications, logical framework inclusion, values to be reported, calculation methods (with examples), data sources and related issues and the reporting process, as well as other uses.
Methodological notes for different results frameworks:
🔗 Global Europe Results Framework | GERF
🔗 Instrument Pre-Accession III | IPA III