Pacific Appliance Labelling and Standards Programme (PALS) Final Evaluation Final Report

The Pacific Appliance Labelling and Standards Programme (PALS), with funding and oversight from the Commonwealth of Australia, and regional management from the Pacific Community (SPC), has supported ten PICs since 2012 as they sought to enact legislation and implement Minimum Energy Performance  Standards and Labelling (MEPSL) for their highest energy-consuming appliances.

The budget for the PALS programme was AU$3 million. The original programme was slated to last three years, but was extended, without a budget increase, to six years, primarily due to slower than anticipated legislative processes. This end-of-programme evaluation was conducted in March through May of 2019. It focused on six of ten PICs that participated in PALS:

• three that passed and one that sought expanded MEPSL legislation – Samoa, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Fiji,1 and
• two that drafted but did not pass MEPSL legislation – Kiribati and Cook Islands.

Evaluation methods included a review of programme materials and relevant literature and 57 in-depth interviews Kiribati and Cook Islands. Evaluation methods included a review of programme materials and relevant literature and 57 in-depth interviews2 with PALS stakeholders, including: programme staff, technical advisors and donors; representatives from relevant governmental ministries and departments; appliance retailers, wholesalers, and agents; and other stakeholders.

This evaluation examines the extent to which PALS met its four desired outcomes:
 To confirm political commitment for MEPSL
 To establish enabling environments for MEPSL
 To support MEPSL adoption and operation
 To help build region-wide capacity for MEPSL

This assessment also examines the key challenges PALS encountered during MEPSL’s legislative and implementation processes, and recommends how to mitigate those  challenges if similar programmes were to be pursued in the future.