By Oscar A. García
Oscar A. García is Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) and co-author of a new book on evaluation practices and how they can help to foster inclusive and sustainable rural transformation.
Three questions lie at the heart of every effort to improve social and economic conditions in the world’s rural communities: How are we doing? Why is that? and How can we do better? These questions reflect the need to regularly assess development initiatives and to share knowledge, which can help to improve both efforts and results.
The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) has produced a book entitled, Evaluation for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural Transformation: World Bank Series on Evaluation and Development, Volume 9, to shed light on the process behind the evaluation of development policies, strategies and programmes, and to share lessons learned from some key assessments.
Independent evaluation is fundamentally important to IFAD’s work to support inclusive and sustainable transformation in rural areas, in line with its mandate, and in the context of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
IOE aims to promote accountability and learning through independent, credible and useful evaluations. Its main role is to evaluate IFAD-funded projects and programmes, provide assessments of what works and what does not, identify the factors leading to good performance, and determine to what extent IFAD’s policies and strategies are successful in alleviating poverty in rural areas, and why.
Game-changers
Evaluations have helped IFAD to boost its development effectiveness by leading to structural and organizational changes, new corporate policies, and more streamlined internal processes and procedures. For example, IFAD increased its number of country offices as a result of one influential evaluation and, following another, it took on direct supervision of projects in which its funding was involved.
Inclusive and sustainable
IOE evaluations in recent years have reflected increased recognition of the importance of looking at the connections between social, economic and environmental dimensions in sustainable development. They have considered issues such as gender equality, the need to engage more effectively with indigenous peoples, and changes in previous assumptions about the ways in which pastoral communities function.
One evaluation looked at the results of IFAD’s support to environment and natural resources management by examining evaluations conducted between 2010 and 2015. It found that, during the evaluation period, environmental and social safeguards were upgraded, IFAD’s Environment and Climate Division was established, and a new programme was launched to channel climate and environmental finance to smallholder farmers.
Still, the evaluation noted, farmers needed more incentives and environmental and natural resources management needed to be better incorporated in country-level planning. This is only an example of how evaluation can recognize accomplishments while also identifying opportunities for improvement.
Gathering information
In addition to looking at how evaluation at IFAD has evolved, the book also looks at the methodology used to gather information and make assessments. It illustrates the sources of information, which may include the views of the country programme manager; staff members responsible for delivering projects, government officials, civil society representatives, written reports and other documentation. More importantly, evaluation gives voice to the voiceless, by systematically including perceptions of project beneficiaries on the expected impact of IFAD's operations.
Asking the right questions, looking for the signs of what is working, what is not, what is needed and why, is not the sole responsibility of evaluation professionals. It is part of an ongoing process of examination and evidence-gathering which can take place in rural homes, on the farm, at the fishing docks, at the market, in parliamentary halls, and at the work desks of numerous government officials and educators.
New challenges
Despite its success, IFAD’s mission faces new challenges every day, amid rapidly-shifting scenarios and the numerous ongoing, interconnected social, economic and environmental factors, which have an impact on people’s capacities to lift themselves out of extreme poverty, protect natural resources, and transform food systems and government policies in sustainable and nutrition-sensitive ways. Evaluation helps the Fund to keep in step with these changes.
Evaluation for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural Transformation - World Bank Series on Evaluation and Development, Volume 9 will be launched on 21 September 2018