2021 Management Action Record System (MARS) Report

The 2021 IDEV report assessing the progress made by the African Development Bank (AfDB or the Bank) in the follow-up of recommendations from its independent evaluations, which are tracked through the Management Action Record System (MARS), has been published. The assessment considered the evaluation recommendations with all their actions due by 30 June 2021, which represents 149 recommendations from 52 evaluations with 403 actions. 

This report examines the extent to which Bank Management has adopted the agreed recommendations of IDEV evaluations by assessing (i) the level of alignment of the action plans to the respective recommendations and (ii) the degree of implementation of the action plans, including the timeliness of implementation. The scores on alignment and implementation are then combined into an overall rating on adoption. 

The report concluded that the alignment of action plans has significantly improved from 84% rated high in 2019 to 90% in 2020 and 95% in 2021. The cumulative percentage of highly and substantially implemented action plans also increased, from 26% in 2019 to 41% in 2020, and stands at 43.5% in 2021, which shows a gradual improvement since IDEV’s first MARS report in 2019. The provision of sufficient evidence and timeliness have especially improved, with the average implementation delay declining from 624 days in 2019 to 410 days in 2020 and 305 days in 2021. However, timeliness still remains the main reason for weak implementation ratings. As concerns the level of adoption, the proportion of recommendations rated high or substantial has increased only slightly from 41% in 2020 to 43.5% in 2021, after a significant jump from 26% to 41% between 2019 and 2020. Country Strategy and Program Evaluations were rated highest on adoption, followed by Corporate Evaluations. However, overall levels of adoption remain low due primarily to lack of timeliness and lack of implementation. 
Following the assessment, as per the Bank’s MARS guidelines, IDEV proposed to retire 35 of the 149 recommendations whose related action plans are fully implemented and whose target completion date is more than two years in the past.

Task Manager: Eric Kere, Senior Evaluation Officer