International Fund for Agricultural Development

Evaluation Function

In 2003, when the IFAD Executive Board approved the Evaluation Policy ,the Office of Evaluation of IFAD became fully independent of Management and reported directly to the Executive Board. The Evaluation Policy was subsequently revised in 2011 and the office was re-named as the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE). A Revised evaluation policy was approved by IFAD’s Executive Board in 2021, covering for the first time both self and independent evaluation functions.

IOE conducts evaluations of IFAD-financed policies, strategies and operations to promote accountability and learning. The main purpose is to contribute to improving IFAD's and its partners' performance in reducing rural poverty in recipient countries. IOE conducts -corporate-level, sub-regional, country programme, project-level, evaluations and evaluation syntheses.

In 2023, IOE had 22 staff members and a budget of US$5.97 million. IOE staff lead evaluations, with support from external consultants, and are responsible for both the quality and contents of the final evaluation reports.

Snapshot

Evaluation Policy

• Revised IFAD Evaluation Policy, 2021. https://webapps.ifad.org/members/eb/132/docs/EB-2021-132-R-5-Rev-1.pdf

Priorities/Competitive advantage:

• Independence, quality assurance

Human Resources

• Director: 1 (M)
• Deputy Director: 1 (M)
• Evaluators: Total 11; (F=6 and M=5) 
• Evaluation Research Analyst: 1 (F)
• Evaluation Communication and Knowledge Management Officer: 1 (M)
• Support staff: 7 (F=6; M=1)

Evaluations reports published per year

• 45 reports in 2022

 Key resource:

•  IOE website:    ioe.ifad.org 

Independence

IOE reports directly to the Executive Board (EB), which is assisted by the Evaluation Committee. This Committee performs in-depth reviews of selected evaluation reports and IOE's annual work programme and budget, as well as selected self-evaluation reports produced by IFAD’s Management. Independence is enshrined in the 2021 Evaluation Policy as a key evaluation principle, among other principles, such as usefulness, impartiality, transparency, partnership, evaluability and value for money. The Director of IOE has the authority to sign and distribute evaluation reports to the governing bodies of IFAD and to external audiences without prior clearance within or outside the organization. He/she is independently responsible for the preparation of the work programme and the evaluation budget which is presented to the EB for approval.

Agenda Setting & Evaluation Planning

IOE prepares an annual work programme and budget, as well as an indicative plan for the forthcoming two years. The work plan determines the types of evaluations to be conducted, the timeline, priority areas and resources required including the budget. This is submitted to the EB for approval and made available online on the IFAD website.

Stakeholder involvement and promoting national evaluation capacity development

Partnership is a key element of the IFAD Evaluation Policy. IOE encourages the engagement of partners, who are involved in the planning, implementation and follow-up to the evaluation. Evaluation teams consist of an IOE lead evaluator and one or more international and/or local consultants and are gender balanced.

IOE also provides selective support to developing countries in building their evaluation capacities. IOE is a founding member of the Global Evaluation Initiative, co-led by the World Bank and UNDP.

Quality Assurance

The Evaluation Policy and IOE Evaluation Manual (2022, part II, annex I) refer to the quality assurance system for IOE. While the lead evaluator is ultimately responsible for the quality of the final evaluation report,an internal peer review process of all reports is also conducted to ensure quality. Review teams are generally comprised of IOE staff. For corporate and thematic evaluations and for evaluation syntheses, one or more Senior Independent External Advisor(s) are usually selected.

Use of Evaluation

All evaluations receive a Management Response, whereby IFAD’s Management explains how it intends to follow-up on recommendations. For country programme evaluations, the concerned IFAD regional division in the Programme Management Department and the government prepare an agreement at completion point (ACP) which captures the agreement of the government and IFAD to adopt and implement evaluation recommendations within specific timeframes. Management systematically follows on the implementation of the recommendations and prepares and submits to the EB the President's Report on the Implementation Status of Evaluation Recommendations and Management Actions (PRISMA), explaining how the recommendations of all the evaluations have been implemented.  IOE provides written comments on the PRISMA.  From 2024, Management plans to pilot an electronic database version of the PRISMA.

Evaluation results are widely disseminated both internally and externally. For corporate, thematic, sub-regional evaluations and for evaluation syntheses, IOE organizes a learning event, in collaboration with Management.  For country-level evaluations, it organizes a workshop in collaboration with Management and national authorities which can take place virtually or in person.  Evaluation lessons are extracted and communicated through information briefs, infographics, blogs and disseminated via social media.  IOE has also introduced an evaluation magazine, which reports on the main evaluation activities

IOE maintains a dedicated website with an online database of evaluation reports categorized by type of evaluation.

IOE promotes a culture of evaluation in-house by providing feedback at selected IFAD review and decision-making committees on new projects, country programmes or corporate policy and by disseminating evaluation lessons and insights through in-house workshops and learning events.

Joint Evaluation

In 2007, IFAD and the African Development Bank (AfDB) conducted a joint evaluation on agriculture and rural development in Africa, which was completed in 2009. In 2014,IOE and the Office of Evaluation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) combined their efforts in preparing a joint evaluation synthesis report on pastoral development. In 2017 IOE collaborated with the Independent Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank on a joint project-level evaluation in Laos; and in 2019, it collaborated with the evaluation office of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration on a joint project evaluation in Belize.

In 2020-2021, IOE collaborated with the evaluation offices of FAO and WFP on a joint corporate-level evaluation of collaboration among UN Rome-based Agencies.