EVO - Evaluation- A Management Tool for Improving Project Performance (a logical framework) -3/97

Evaluation provides learning opportunities for all stakeholders: country leaders and decision-makers, public sector managers, IDB project managers and team leaders. The key is to look for insight in outcomes - both project successes and project failures. These learning opportunities and insights can be derived throughout the project cycle.

Evaluation can be used as a learning tool to improve future performance. Through its Evaluation Office, the IDB is involved in improving the performance of development projects by promoting the use of evaluation as a tool of institutional learning within IDB, and by assisting in the development of evaluation capacity of borrowing countries.

The development of evaluation capacity is important for two major reasons: 

 

• Enhanced evaluation capacity will increase the Borrower's return on investment and amelioration of development problems, thereby improving the Bank's overall performance

   

   

• Development of evaluation capacity in Borrowing countries supports enhancement of good governance

   

Development project stakeholders in borrowing countries are making huge investments in development projects. The risk incurred in running the projects generally decreases as managers gain access to quality information on project performance and the evolving development problematique.

This situation requires mechanisms to ensure corrections during project implementation. Project managers need focused and timely evaluations, and the technical and intellectual support of local personnel, in order for the findings and lessons to be used to improve project performance.

Generation and sharing of sound evaluation data is one of the ways countries provide transparency and instill public confidence in government. An evaluation culture can reduce the potential for public corruption and make public officials more accountable for performance of public investments.

Public sector managers need evaluations to provide reliable and valid data on performance, and the capacity to learn from the data, in order to facilitate strategic decision-making in the public interest. Because they assist on-going review of public policies, programs and investments, effective and well-performing evaluations are a good tool to support public accountability.

IDB supports borrowing countries in developing their evaluation capacity through: 

 

• Training

   

   

• Technical Assistance

   

   

• Sharing of standards and best practices

   

   

• Rolling up and sharing project evaluations and lessons learned

   

There are a number of challenges that are encountered in developing evaluation capacity. They are presented below with some strategies for meeting them.

Strategies:

• Promoting evaluation as a vehicle for learning, and improving future performance
• Encouraging the use of evaluation in public decision-making, and the consistent use of feedback in the budget allocation process

   

• Supporting efforts to reduce the fear of political fallout from evaluation results

   

   

• Investing in an evaluation capacity development process that is suited to local needs, is internally driven, and that calls for the participation of all stakeholders

   

 

• Building the skills and institutions needed in generating information, especially financial and accounting information

   

   

• Strengthening data systems in key private agencies and universities

   

   

• Provide evaluation documentation and materials to key agencies

   

   

• Strengthening the mechanisms for feedback on performance into the decision-making process

   

   

• Developing accounting and auditing standards

   

   

• Building the capacities of professional bodies and supervisory institutions that monitor performance in relation to such standards

   

   

• Building an information dissemination infrastructure

   

 

• Developing portfolio-focused strategies for building evaluation capacity in borrowers

   

   

• Integrating measures of building evaluation capacity into portfolio performance criteria

   

   

• Linking building evaluation capacity with other portfolio projects, such as public sector management reform

   

   

• Putting evaluation capacity development on the agenda for discussion with borrowing country leaders and decision-makers

   

 

• Building capacity development dimensions into project design, monitoring and evaluation

   

   

• Developing an evaluation tool chest filled with user-friendly tools

   

   

• Providing training evaluation methodologies in concert with key agencies that house evaluation documentation and materials

   

   

• Focussing training on evaluation in all project stages not just ex-post evaluation

   

   

• Encouraging stakeholders to analyze the qualities of project success as much as project failure

   

   

• Involving a range of stakeholders in the capacity development process while keeping it focused on outputs

   

There are many important lessons to be distilled from the experiences of borrowers, non-borrowing countries, the Bank's own operations and other partners in the development community. These lessons can be used in the design of new operations, as well as the improvements of ongoing activities.

The Bank's Evaluation Office (EVO) supports the Bank's Evaluation System (BES) by contributing to the systematic objective assessment of strategies, policies, programs, and projects, and by enabling the incorporation of lessons learned into the decision-making process. The oversight function of EVO regarding the BES must essentially ensure that "evaluable" products are generated; that evaluation as a learning tool, at all stages of the project cycle, becomes part of the corporate culture; and that adequate resources and corporate planning are introduced into the BES to ensure the viability of the system.

The Bank, through the Evaluation Office, will support the learning process by: 

 

• extracting lessons learned through the evaluation experience of borrowers, non-borrowing countries, the Bank's own operations, and other partners in the development community for use in design of new operations, as well as the improvement of ongoing activities;

   

• disseminating findings of evaluations so that recommendations for improvement can be used in the analysis, design, appraisal and execution of new operations

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