01 | THE HIGHLIGHTS – DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVENESS
DEVELOPMENT EFFECTIVENESS
The OPEC Fund for International Development has in recent years put particular emphasis on enhancing the impact of its support to partner countries and clients by measuring, monitoring and evaluating its activities with a dedicated results framework and a comprehensive pro- ject-level development effectiveness toolkit. The OPEC Fund releases its findings in the form of a Development Effectiveness Report (DER), published alongside its Annual Report. The latest DER shows the OPEC Fund’s progress towards its vision of “a world where sustainable development is a reality for all.” Examining the period from July 2022 to June 2023 it finds that all 43 projects approved by the OPEC Fund during that time contributed to at least one Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), with a majority (60 percent) contributing to two or more. On average, each approved project contributed to 2.7 SDGs, with a maximum of 10 SDGs (out of 17) achieved by one project, a policy-based loan in Armenia. A majority of the examined projects contributed to SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth - through a variety of channels, for instance providing support to increase access to finance for micro, small and medi- um-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and to policy reforms to foster sustainable economic growth. The frontrun- ner was followed by SDG 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and SDG 1 – No Poverty. As most projects address multiple goals, our work is clearly more than the sum of its parts — similar to the 2030 Agenda itself.
results. Based on the review of all OPEC Fund operations having reached completion or early operating maturity during the mid-2022 to mid-2023 period, it finds that, for example, projects in the health sector benefited an estimated 15.7 million people in their catchment area, more than 1 GW of renewable energy was added for clean energy generation, and more than 300,000 farm- ers, 120,000 students and 4,600 MSMEs benefited from OPEC Fund-supported projects. The path the OPEC Fund has chosen through its Stra- tegic Framework 2030 is to increase operations and deepen impact to address the rising demand for South- South development cooperation. The Development Effectiveness Unit is supporting the operations teams in preparing and implementing projects that maximize development results. In addition to taking stock of the OPEC Fund’s devel- opment effectiveness, the new edition of the DER also examines the issue of food security as a key challenge for the international community. The latest global trends are cause for concern: after years of steady progress, the number of people going hungry today is higher than in 2015 – when the Sustainability Agenda was adopted. The reasons for this reversal are numerous and can be found in recent geopolitical events and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have exacerbated develop- ing countries’ existing barriers to agricultural self-suffi- ciency. The causes are as complex as the impacts. But for the OPEC Fund as a development institution one simple truth stands above all else: If people go hungry, progress on all other development goals is impossible.
In addition to tallying up the expected SDG alignment of new projects, the report also looks back at actual project
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