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Get the latest information on our evaluations and eventsThe Office of Evaluation and Oversight, established in 1999, undertakes independent and systematic evaluations of IDB Group’s strategies, policies, programs, activities, performance and delivery support systems. It disseminates findings of these evaluations so that recommendations can be used in the design, analysis and execution of new operations. OVE makes four types of evaluations:
Country Program Evaluations
Evaluate the IDB’s recent support to a country, to provide useful inputs for the design of the following Country Strategy.
Sector Evaluations
Perform a comprehensive analysis within a sector or topic to extract lessons for future IDB Sector Strategies.
Project Evaluations
Generate lessons and operational recommendations by measuring the impact of individual or specific sets of projects.
Corporate Evaluations
Assess the quality of IDB policies, tools, and internal processes in order to strengthen the institution’s performance.
FEATURED EVALUATIONS
Assessing the results of individual development operations is essential to learning what works and what does not. Learn more about our projects.
Take a look at one of our latest approach paper for the Country Program Evaluation: Colombia 2015-2018
Take a look at one of our latest approach paper for the Country Program Evaluation: Costa Rica 2015-2018
Take a look at one of our latest approach paper for the Country Program Evaluation: Brazil 2015-2018
Take a look at one of our latest approach paper for the Country Program Evaluation: Mexico 2013-2018
Take a look at one of our latest Country Program Evaluations: Paraguay 2014-2018
In projects, apart from the risks of not achieving their objectives, there is also a risk to absorb financial losses. Learn more about our projects.
Between 2010 and 2016, IDB mobilized more than US$1 billion to finance knowledge activities. Here is our review
Take a look at one of our latest Country Program Evaluation: Barbados 2014-2018
Sound environmental and social management are critical to the Bank. Here is our evaluation.
MORE ABOUT OVE
INDEPENDENCE
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
ACCESS TO INFORMATION
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.
OUR TEAM
The Office of Evaluation and Oversight comprises a team of approximately 25 staff and 30 research fellows and consultants.
pabloal@iadb.org
(202) 623-2970
WORK PROGRAM
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 2018-2019 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)
TYPES OF EVALUATION
OVE’s multi-year work plan covers four areas: Country Program Evaluations, Sector and Thematic Evaluations, Project Evaluations and Corporate Evaluations.
Country Program 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.
Sector and Thematic Evaluations
These evaluations provide in-depth analysis of IDB’s engagement on a specific sector while supplying lessons learned and advice on future strategic directions.
Project Evaluations
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.
Corporate Evaluations
These evaluations focus on the IDB Group’s own structure and processes and examine how they affect the development effectiveness of its work.
EVALUATION CAPACITY BUILDING
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.
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Our Partners
Evaluation Cooperation Group
Asian Development Bank Independent Evaluation Department
African Development Bank Independent Development Evaluation
Black Sea Trade & Development Bank Independent Evaluation Office 
Council of Europe Development Bank Evaluation Department 
OECD Development Assistance Committee 
EBRD - Independent Evaluation Department
European Investment Bank Operations Evaluation 
International Fund for Agricultural Development - Independent Office of Evaluation
Islamic Development Bank Operations Evaluation Department 
International Monetary Fund Independent Evaluation Office 
United Nations Evaluation Group 
United Nations Development Program - Independent Evaluation Office
World Bank Independent Evaluation Group