As part of the gLOCAL Evaluation Week events held virtually in 2022, IDEV held a roundtable discussion on 2nd June on the theme of “the evolution of evaluation practices, and their application for better development effectiveness.” Discussants focused on how evaluation methods and approaches have evolved within IDEV since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and how they can inform the “building back better” agenda of the African Development Bank.
IDEV Evaluator General Karen Rot Münstermann introduced the theme and the discussants, calling first on IDEV’s Chief Evaluation Officer, Joseph Mouanda to describe the changes in evaluation at the AfDB that he had witnessed during his long career with the department. Mr. Mouanda highlighted the shift from stand-alone project evaluations to more sector, thematic, and country evaluations in line with the Bank’s needs for holistic evaluative evidence. He also spoke of the introduction of the Management Actions Record System, a tool to follow up on the uptake of evaluation recommendations at the AfDB, allowing IDEV and the Bank to monitor implementation. IDEV’s Chief Quality and Methods Advisor, Andrew Anguko gave details of recent evolutions in data collection and evaluation methodology. He also explained that IDEV evaluations now systematically begin with an evidence gap analysis, which ensures a clear definition of the scope of the evaluation and narrows down the evaluation questions. Mr. Anguko explained that the inability to carry out fieldwork during the COVID 19 pandemic had led to the increased use of digital platforms to collect data. He pointed to shifts in methodology towards an increased reliance on in-depth documents, literature, and portfolio reviews. Jacqueline Nyagahima, Principal Knowledge Management Officer at IDEV, supported the shift, asserting that IDEV evaluation reports have become a major resource for the institutional memory of the AfDB. IDEV disposes of over 40 years of data on the Bank’s projects, and there is a very large database of evaluation knowledge available on the IDEV website since all reports and knowledge products are systematically put online for public consultation. Ms. Nyagahima drew attention to the fact that IDEV raised awareness of lessons from recent evaluations among many more people in Africa who had learned to use virtual platforms and online resources due to ‘work from home.’ Given the vast competing information that abounds, IDEV has increased its efforts and resources in stakeholder mapping. Consequently, IDEV.3, the knowledge management and communication division, now systematically draws up a dissemination plan for each evaluation which identifies who the stakeholders are in each case, and how best to reach each segment of the identified audience.
Joseph Mouanda took up the theme of sharing evaluative evidence, adding that numerous evaluations of infrastructure projects had revealed that mobilizing funds to bridge the infrastructure gap is crucial but not the only pre-requisite to success. He shared the view of Ms. Nyagahima that reaching out to stakeholders as part of a participatory process was one of the key elements of success when designing infrastructure interventions, whether it be a road, an energy access program, or a water and sanitation project. Evaluations of infrastructure realizations had proved that project design requires a solid preparatory phase, with adequate and up-to-date feasibility studies. Evaluative evidence had also revealed that integrated, i.e. cross-industry solutions which rely on strong coordination at ministerial levels and between AfDB operational departments yielded more sustainable results. According to Mr. Mouanda, IDEV can and should in the future be committed to involvement in AfDB operations, while retaining its independence and impartiality.
Fellow IDEV Chief Evaluation Officer Girma Kumbi described how evaluative evidence helped the Bank to design interventions that enhanced productivity. He gave the example of how IDEV evaluations in agriculture revealed the benefits of a value chain approach to development projects. He also gave the example of how IDEV evaluations had informed the AfDB’s recent initiative to finance an Emergency Food Production Facility. Similarly, evaluations informed emerging urgent development issues such as climate change resilience and adaptation. May Mwaka, Principal Evaluation Officer at IDEV, elaborated on the theme of integrated development investments, which are increasing the complexity of recent evaluations. From her extensive background as an evaluator, she explained the recent trend towards more participatory evaluations and more reliance on relevant and complementary evaluations from sister organization evaluation teams. Ms. Rot Münstermann echoed the view that the way forward was to share evaluation findings between organizations, as this has shown to be valuable for AfDB management's decision-making, for example, in the case of optimizing the food production facility financing project. She concluded that effective management of evaluative knowledge and a reorganization of IDEV's focus towards evaluations on project clusters and leveraging the myriad of existing knowledge from IDEV’s long history could greatly contribute to the post-pandemic recovery by steering the Bank towards best practices for the future.