

Evaluate the IDB’s recent support to a country, to provide useful inputs for the design of the following Country Strategy.
Perform a comprehensive analysis within a sector or topic to extract lessons for future IDB Sector Strategies.
Generate lessons and operational recommendations by measuring the impact of individual or specific sets of projects.
Assess the quality of IDB policies, tools, and internal processes in order to strengthen the institution’s performance.
Highlights findings and lessons from the evaluations and products conducted throughout the year; presents the work dedicated to evaluation capacity development, knowledge, and dissemination efforts; and previews the 2023-2024 work program.
In this evaluation OVE took stock of the governance arrangements of the IDB and assessed the extent to which these arrangements allow the institution to operate effectively and efficiently while providing sufficient accountability, transparency, and stakeholder voice in decision making.
The Updated Country Product Protocol revises the scope, approach, and process for OVE’s country products: Independent Country Program Reviews (ICPRs) and Expanded Country Program Evaluations (XCPEs).
OVE supports the IDB Group’s learning and accountability through the validation of IDB PCRs and IDB Invest XSRs. The 2022 Cycle showed that only about half (53%) of the Sovereign-Guarantee validated operations achieved a positive overall outcome rating, while 57% did so on the Non-Sovereign-Guarantee side.
Take a look at Evaluation Policy Framework of the IDB Group, approved by the Boards of IDB and IDB Invest in July 2019.
The 2021 ReTS Report presented the results of the validation of 120 active action plans designed by Management to address Board-endorsed OVE recommendations. OVE assessed the relevance, evaluability, implementation, & adoption of such action plans.
OVE assessed what was achieved in 10 years of the IDB Grant Facility financing and whether the use of this funding mechanism was an effective approach to supporting the country’s reconstruction and development.
Analyzes the IDB Group's country strategy & country program with Jamaica during the 2016-2022 period.
Take a look at one of our latest Country Program Evaluations: Chile 2014-2018
Take a look at one of our latest Country Program Evaluations: Nicaragua 2013-2017
Between 2010 and 2016, IDB mobilized more than US$1 billion to finance knowledge activities. Here is our review
The Office of Evaluation and Oversight (OVE) is part of the evaluation system of the IDB Group. Since July 2019, the IDB Group has an Evaluation Policy Framework, approved by the Boards of IDB and IDB Invest.
The Evaluation Policy Framework defines the objectives of the IDB Group’s evaluation system─learning, accountability and transparency. The Policy Framework establishes the scope and principles that guide evaluation in the IDB Group, both for self-evaluation work conducted by IDB and IDB Invest, as well as for independent evaluation work conducted by OVE. It also defines the roles and responsibilities within the evaluation system. Furthermore, the Policy Framework stipulates OVE´s periodic review, consistent with the practice of previous years.
The Office of Evaluation and Oversight is independent from IDB's Management. It has organizational and behavioral independence, and is free from external pressure and conflicts of interest according to the criteria established by the Evaluation Cooperation Group of the Multilateral Development Banks, of which the IDB is a founding member.
In this context, independence implies independence of judgment along with adequate independence in managing the resources that are reasonably necessary to reach an independent judgment, within the framework of general IDB's rules (procurement, budget, travel policies, etc).
OVE's findings, analyses, and conclusions are free from external influence at all stages of the process, including the planning of work programs and budget, formulation of terms of reference, staffing of evaluation teams, execution of evaluations and approval of reports.
See the following related documents for further information:
Review Framework for the Evaluation Function in Multilateral Development Banks
All evaluations produced by OVE comply with the IDB’s Access to Information Policy, ensuring that all information will be disclosed unless it is found on a narrow list of exceptions.
In May 2010, the IDB's Board of Executive Directors approved the new Access to Information Policy, which was enforced on January 1, 2011. The general principle of the new policy is to publicly disclose information unless one of the ten exceptions listed in the policy is applicable. Therefore, the documents and information produced by OVE comply with the new policy, aimed at fostering transparency and dissemination.
The new policy strengthens the IDB's commitment to transparency in all of its activities, ensuring that all information will be disclosed unless it is found on a narrow list of exceptions. The Policy establishes requirements for the timely availability of three types of information—operational, financial and institutional—and creates a two-stage review mechanism for instances in which access to information is denied.
The Office of Evaluation and Oversight comprises a team of approximately 25 staff and 30 research fellows and consultants.
Resources Planning and Administration Senior Analyst
angelicam@iadb.org(202) 623 - 2897
Annually, OVE develops a work program to evaluate the IDB Group that shows planned evaluations, proposed budget for the coming year and an indicative list of evaluations for the following year.
You can review the most recent Work Program for 2023-2024 approved by the Board of Executive Directors, as well as a repository of all OVE's work programs.
2006 Work program (and 2005-2006 Annual report)
2005 Work program (and 2003-2004 Annual report)
OVE’s multi-year work plan covers four areas: Country Program Evaluations, Sector and Thematic Evaluations, Project Evaluations and Corporate Evaluations.
These evaluations analyze the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of the full range of IDB Group’s support to an individual borrowing country over a 4- to 5-year period. This usually corresponds to the time covered by the most recent Country Strategy. Each country program evaluation involves extensive discussions with IDB’s management and country counterparts.
These evaluations provide in-depth analysis of IDB’s engagement on a specific sector while supplying lessons learned and advice on future strategic directions.
These evaluations underpin all of OVE’s evaluation work – whether at the country, sector, thematic, or corporate level. An accurate picture of IDB Group’s results requires a clear understanding of the performance of the projects it supports.
Additionally, OVE has an important role in strengthening IDB Group’s overall evaluation “architecture” by validating management’s self-evaluations on project performance.
These evaluations focus on the IDB Group’s own structure and processes and examine how they affect the development effectiveness of its work.
OVE provides Evaluation Capacity Building to borrowing countries through cooperative evaluation agreements to develop evaluation networks in Latin America and the Caribbean. The goal is to increase awareness of the use of evaluation for public administration around the Region.
OVE provides financial and in-kind support to Spanish and Portuguese speaking CLEAR centers in Latin America situated at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica (CIDE) in México and the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV)in Brazil.