International network: monitoring and evaluation report 2022-2023

Executive Summary

This report provides findings from the joint monitoring and evaluation process for Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise/Scottish Development International (SDI) external network.

This process, alongside joint business planning, has become a core part of collaborative working across nine locations where both Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise/ SDI have a physical presence within a given country – Brussels, London, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Nordics (Copenhagen), and USA.

This joint work is supported by two main pillars – the long term strategic outcomes and the priorities mandate. The long term strategic outcomes sit alongside the priorities mandate to inform how the network should pursue these outcomes in the context of any given year. Each location reports against the five strategic outcomes in this report. These are:-

• Reputation – improving Scotland’s international profile
• Investment – attracting investment
• International Trade – helping businesses to trade internationally
• Research & Innovation – promoting and securing research and innovation capability, partnerships and funding
• Scotland’s Interests – protecting and enhancing Scotland’s interests in the EU and beyond

All of the offices are provided with a template document which they are asked to complete. The template is designed to provide a consistent approach across the offices and contains guidelines to help facilitate the robustness of the process.

Specifically each location is asked to report against a number of contextual factors as well as against each of the five strategic outcomes. The contextual areas which offices provide evidence for include:

• Context for reporting year including office location, staffing and headcount
• Overall reflections on biggest achievements and challenges over the last year
• Medium to long-term impact
• Lessons learned for reporting year including what could have gone better and areas for improvement in the coming year.