2023 Management Action Record System (MARS) Report

The 2023 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 2023, which represents 182 recommendations from 53 evaluations with 490 actions. 

This report examines the extent to which Bank Management has adopted the agreed recommendations of IDEV’s independent 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 highly aligned with their recommendations has improved from 95% in 2021 to 96% in 2022 and remained stable at 96% in 2023. Regarding the level of implementation, after an increase of the cumulative percentage of highly and substantially implemented action plans from 43.5% in 2021 to 67% in 2022, it increased only marginally, by 1%, in 2023 to stand at 68%. Regarding the level of adoption, the cumulative percentage of highly and substantially adopted recommendations slightly increased in 2023 with 68% compared to 67% in 2022. Country Strategy and Program Evaluations were rated highest on adoption, followed by Sector evaluations. However, like in previous years, overall levels of adoption remain low primarily due to lack of timeliness and implementation. 

Following the assessment, as per the Bank’s MARS guidelines, IDEV proposed to retire 65 recommendations from 27 evaluations 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