Evaluation Week 2022

Introduction

The African Development Bank’s biennial flagship, “Evaluation Week”, came to a close on Friday 30 September 2022, and the Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) function of the Bank is pleased to share with you information and knowledge from this important learning event.

Held virtually with participants from across the globe, the theme of this year’s event was “Building a Stronger and More Resilient Africa.”  The structure and format of this edition were designed to support the Bank in the formulation of its new 10-year strategy against a backdrop of new and exacerbated economic and social challenges that the continent faces. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, hardship from climate shocks, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have all affected the economies of Africa and have resulted in a call for new policies, strategies, and programs underpinned by evidence of what works, what doesn’t work, and why.

The 2022 edition of Evaluation Week attracted over 800 participants to one or more sessions. A further 600 joined the live stream of the opening plenary via social media. 

See the Snapshot of Evaluation Week 2022 sessions. 

Evaluation Week 2022 Program

 

Professional workshop for young and emerging evaluators – learning from each other

Day 1 | 28 September | 09:00am-11:00am

Young and emerging evaluators (YEEs) represent an important part of Africa's future and the future of evaluation in Africa. Even though evaluation is a growing practice, Africa's young evaluators face many challenges in developing their skills and careers. Following on from discussions among YEEs hosted by IDEV as part of the gLOCAL Evaluation Week in June,  this workshop, hosted by the Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV), provided participants with a toolkit of essential resources.

After a short introduction by the moderator, Latefa Camara, Evaluation Officer, IDEV, AfDB; 290 participants benefited from the experience of both seasoned evaluation professionals who shared their methodologies and young evaluators who shared their tips on how to succeed in forging a career as an evaluator. The presentations by IDEV staff included:

• Andrew Anguko, Chief Quality and Methods Advisor, who presented on the steps required for a rigorous evaluation
• Debazou Yantio, Principal Evaluation Officer, who presented on practical examples of how to use a mixed method approach in the evaluation
• Racky Balde, Evaluation Officer, who presented on the fit for purpose online resources in development evaluation

 

View workshop materials  

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Opening Plenary: Key challenges facing African people and the continent and the role of evaluation in tackling them.

Day 1 | 28 September 2022 | 14:00 - 16:00

The plenary opening session set the tone and focus of the Evaluation Week. It featured interventions from thought leaders on the key challenges facing Africa and efforts by the AfDB and its partners to tackle them and build a more resilient Africa. 

During the session, Simon Mizrahi, Acting Vice President, Technology and Corporate Services at the AfDB on behalf of President Adesina Akinwumi, relayed the appreciation of the evaluation function at the Bank and its role in informing the Ten-Year Strategy through lessons and knowledge gained from past experience. 

AfDB Evaluator General Karen Rot Münstermann reminded the participants that Evaluation Week was a means of sharing knowledge collaboratively and constructively and that the discussions can wield transformation in the development space. IDEV selected some strategic focus areas and invited sector and technical experts to join evaluators. 

Following a keynote presentation by Walter Odhiambo, Lead Strategy Advisor, Corporate Strategy and Policy, AFDB, on Africa’s current development challenges and the role of evaluation evidence in finalizing the Bank’s new Ten-Year Strategy; Niels Breyer, Executive Director & Chair of the Committee for Operations and Development Effectiveness, AfDB, moderated the roundtable discussion on the role of evaluation in achieving better development results.

Given the presence of distinguished panelists Hon. Jérémie Adomahou, Member of Parliament for Benin and Chairman of the African Parliamentarians’ Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE) and Yéo Nahoua, Chief of Staff, Ministry of Planning and Development, Côte d'Ivoire; Niels Breyer specifically steered the discussion to gather views on how to better integrate evaluation findings into national strategies and policies.

Guest speaker Fatema Soumar, Executive Director of the Center for International Development, Harvard Kennedy School, said that a theory of change and a planned approach are insufficient. We need to value the knowledge that we gain from evaluation evidence and build a culture of evaluation at the local levels. Capacity-building programs for development practitioners on the ground are an important tool in achieving this.

Africa’s key challenges in energy access, agriculture, the debt burden and human capital investments were discussed in the subsequent sessions. In addition, evaluation experts were on hand in each session to share evidence-based solutions to build Africa’s resilience.

View Opening Session materials  

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Light up and power Africa: Fast-changing paradigms

Day 2 | 29 September 2022 | 09:30 - 11:30

Energy sector experts from the African Development Bank met for a roundtable discussion with evaluation experts from IDEV and from Power Africa, a USAID-funded agency working closely with the Bank on several large-scale projects. The challenge for Africa is twofold –providing energy access to the 600 million Africans who live without electricity, and climate change adaptation to build resilience against the growing number of climate-related disasters. 

Yugi Nair, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, Power Africa, presented the importance of evaluation within the Power Africa ecosystem and affirmed that responding appropriately to Africa’s energy needs requires triangulating evidence, continuous reflection and adaptation. So, what is the evidence telling us, and how can it support our response to energy needs? 

Power Africa evaluations pointed to an overall strategy for Africa focused on transmission and distribution, support for utilities, cross-sectoral engagement (health, agriculture, gender, etc.), and a journey towards self-reliance, with capacity development at country and regional levels. 

One of the key recommendations from the evaluation evidence was to improve the sustainability of projects by working with local partners, regulators, and policymakers. In addition, utility transformation is paramount to increasing the sector’s financial viability and attracting investment in the private sector. Yugi Nair was then joined by IDEV’s Joseph Mouanda and AfDB energy sector specialists Monojeet Pal and Batchi Baldeh to discuss the challenges of rolling-out power infrastructure in the African context.  They agreed that however fast technologies move, the underlying governance issue needs to be addressed.  We need to reinforce the Bank’s support to Regional Member Countries through policy dialogue that transforms the business models of power utilities, enabling electrification on a viable Public-Private Partnership model when possible. There is also a strong need for sector reform for efficient transmission and distribution through regional connections, where countries with large production capacity can broker their supply to those with low production. From the evaluation perspective, we should be mindful of adapting evaluation processes to the African context, where the layman’s account of realities is an important contribution to data collection and an important element in defining what is feasible to implement within complex and divergent African settings. 

Batchi Baldeh added that the Bank has scaled up its assistance to its Regional Member Countries as they deliver the Nationally Determined Contributions component of the COP 21 Paris Agreement commitments.  Support is offered through mechanisms such as the Africa Adaptation Initiative (AAI), which aims to address the climate adaptation financing gap, and the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, which aims to scale up the roll-out of renewable energy. 

The panel discussion concluded on the over-arching theme of the African context and the need for a just energy transition that considers legacy infrastructure and economic constraints. The discussion between sector experts and evaluators was timely, given the mid-term review of the Bank’s New Deal on Energy for Africa and the consultations of the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy.  They all agreed that a more holistic approach to development, for example, through integrated infrastructure investments and cross-border cooperation, is required to achieve results at scale.

View Energy Session materials  

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Maximizing agricultural productivity to feed Africa during and beyond the imminent food crisis: Lessons on hand

Day 2 | 29 September 2022 | 14:00 - 16:00

In Agriculture, regional integration with free trade agreements and robust sector policies are key to economic recovery and sustainable growth. Against the backdrop of the threat of food crises in Africa, the agricultural productivity session of Evaluation Week featured lessons from evaluation, research, and experience in agricultural value chains and other associated fields that could inform the design and execution of future initiatives to increase food production.

Andrew Gahe Mude, Lead SME Agribusiness Development, Agriculture Rural Finance Division, AfDB made the welcoming remarks and introduced the notion of business oriented and commercially viable agriculture as the way forward for Africa. Martin Fregene, Director, Agriculture and Agro-Industry, AfDB reminded participants of the strong need to resist shocks and build resilience in agriculture.  Babafemi Oyewole, CEO of the Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO) spoke of the need for government support to smallholder farmers, who contribute significantly to rural food security but for whom low yield is a critical issue. Andrea Cook, Director of Evaluation, World Food Program, said that evaluations have shown that it is often necessary to provide direct support to smallholder agricultural production and value chains, to ensure a reliable supply both in terms of quantity and quality, and to support livelihoods and resilience in a more sustainable manner. 
Evaluations have also revealed that supporting the development of social protection programs with a local value chain component helps develop agricultural markets and boost production. 

 

View Agriculture Session materials  

 

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Debt burdens and the economic resilience of African countries: Effective approaches for international finance institutions

Day 3 | 30 September 2022 | 09:30 - 11:30

Policy dialogue, technical capacity building and knowledge products, coupled with a focus on public investment management as well as public debt management, are important components for countries to avoid debt distress. The Bank has committed to promoting debt sustainability at a time when 23 African countries are suffering from, or at risk of debt distress. AfDB experts conferred that to effectively find solutions, we need strong insight and involvement with countries. Economic diversification and a shift towards better public finance transparency were also essential components of recovery.

Eric Ogunleye, Division manager, (Acting), Policy Management, AfDB; moderated the session. He expressed the urgent need for a financial management action plan that will support countries to build their relief capacity. Jeff Chelsky, Manager, Economic Management and Country Programs Unit of the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) explained that evaluative evidence had revealed that a lack of public investment management was one of the common elements in countries crippled by debt. The key lesson on debt burden management from IEG evaluations is that countries need upstream preparation to identify weaknesses in public finance management and assess risk. The risk assessment should figure prominently in the country’s framework and strategies to enable priorities such as budget support. 

In the African context, Abdoulaye Coulibaly, Director (acting), Macro-Economics Policy, Forecasting and Research, AfDB; added that public debt management and governance systems are ineffective in many countries, and that opacity of debt is a critical issue. Therefore, going forward, building the capacity to manage debt sustainably is imperative and there should be strong attention to diversifying economies to alleviate the risk of a debt crisis. 

View Debt Burden Session materials  

 

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Banking on the people of Africa: Improving human and social development + Wrap up of Evaluation Week 2022

Day 3 | 30 September 2022 | 14:00 - 16:20

Evaluation Week closed with a session dedicated to human and social development in Africa. AfDB experts were joined by specialists from the African Union, the International Labour Organization and the MasterCard Foundation to discuss employment opportunities, particularly for women and youth.

Mouhamed Gueye, Division Manager for Human Capital Youth and Skills Development, AfDB., moderated the debate on whether Africa’s bottom-heavy demographic pyramid really was a dividend and whether it could support inclusive growth, youth entrepreneurship, and employment perspectives in Africa.

David Huysman, Technical Specialist, International Labour Organization spoke of the impact of the recession on jobs, particularly for youth. He said that evidence from evaluations has shown that our future development focus should look at a wider context and a shift of mindsets that called for meaningful employment rather than simple job creation.  There is a need to invest in statistics and data collection for evidence-based policy and decision-making; and to design inclusive policies and pro-employment frameworks, with and for the youth of Africa. Chido Cleopatra Mpemba, African Union Special Envoy on Youth, said that the situation called for new priorities. Green jobs for example, in line with climate change adaptation investments. Learning from evaluations on the contributions of skills training and other initiatives would help to shape larger scale initiatives with the right components. 

Panelists concurred that to ensure investments are relevant and sustainable, development efforts should be human-centered and involve local stakeholders from the outset.  

View Banking on the people of Africa Session materials