Evaluation of the AfDB’s Transition Support Facility

Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB or “the Bank”) carried out an evaluation of the Bank´s Transition Support Facility (TSF) over the 2014–2019 period. This evaluation follows on from IDEV’s evaluation of the AfDB’s Strategy for Addressing Fragility and Building Resilience in Africa (2014-2019), concluded in 2020. The objective of the evaluation was an in-depth examination of the TSF to assess its ability to reduce fragility and build resilience in eligible countries through its three pillars of funding, and to generate lessons that will feed into future Bank planning, programming and strategic frameworks.

The evaluation period covered the activities of the TSF over the two most recently completed African Development Fund funding cycles (ADF-13 and ADF-14). It assessed the following: (i) to what extent the TSF is relevant to provide additional funding and operational flexibility in Regional Member Countries (RMCs) and regions in fragile situations; (ii) to what extent TSF operations under the three pillars have been effective in addressing fragility and building resilience; (iii) how efficiently and coherently TSF-funded operations have been managed and delivered; (iv) to what extent the results generated by TSF-funded operations can be considered sustainable; and (v) what lessons can be learned to ensure the Bank optimizes its use of the TSF to help RMCs and regions in fragile situations.

The evaluation found the TSF to be a highly relevant instrument that has provided operational flexibility and enhanced the level and rapidity of the support provided by the Bank to countries and regions in fragile situations. However, it also noted significant challenges in the design and implementation of the facility that have affected its effectiveness, coherence, efficiency, and sustainability. In these areas, performance often varied across the three pillars of support. The evaluation outlined a structured set of lessons as well as recommendations to strengthen future Bank support to countries and regions in fragile situations.

Some important lessons of the evaluation include:

• The unique and multifaceted design of the TSF, which also embodies flexibility, has enabled the Bank to respond effectively to the multidimensional needs of Transition States.
• Success in reducing the structural drivers of fragility and in pursuing TSF operations requires continuous commitment over time, significant financial resources, and strong partnerships and collaboration among the Bank, RMCs, and other partners;
• Greater flexibility of eligibility criteria would allow the TSF to address a wider range of drivers and pockets of fragility in non-Transition States, and to control against the risks of new countries or regions falling into fragility.
• A robust monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework is critical, not only to enhance the Bank’s accountability and learning in its support to regions and countries in fragile situations, but also to ensure more effective implementation and to increase the likelihood of sustainability.

IDEV made the following recommendations:

1. Enhance the quality of project design, implementation, monitoring, and the reporting of results of TSF operations, tailoring them better to the difficult implementation context of fragile situations.
2. Increase the scale of funding for the TSF through greater leverage of external funding, as well as through the use of other Bank financial instruments.
3. Review the eligibility criteria of the TSF and, if necessary, its pillar structure to enable the instrument to better address structural issues, pockets of conflict, emerging fragility, and crisis-related issues in Transition States and non-Transition States.
4. Improve the efficiency and the sustainability of the Bank’s support for arrears clearance.

Task Manager: Clement Banse, Chief Evaluation Officer