SPECIAL FEATURE
OPEC Fund Development Forum 2023
development e ff ectiveness, their cost, time requirements and methodological limitations prevent their application to all projects. However, there are certain types of projects that are considered a good use of impact evaluation resources. These include pilots of government programs that are based on di ff erent design options and rolled out at a large scale. Impact evaluations of the small initial pilots can help governments decide not only which option to scale up, but also provide a sense of the magnitude of the e ff ects that can be expected at a larger scale. Other good candidates for impact evaluations are highly innovative projects, the e ff ects of which have to be well-understood to assess their suitability for replication. Even when projects do not undertake an impact evaluation, their assessments should nevertheless provide clarity on the assumed chain of e ff ects which are expected to lead to impacts in those long-term measures that development ultimately intends to improve. 4. Sustainability Projects can be very e ff ective in delivering development results in the short term, but the true test for the good use of scarce development resources is the question of whether the development benefits can be sustained over time. Even e ff ective projects can constitute a waste of resources if they are not sustainable.
Take for example the aforementioned road project – if the road is paved but then not maintained over time, the gained benefits can be reversed as the road deteriorates. Addressing known or likely risks to sustainability through e ff ective project design is therefore important, to mitigate the risk of misallocating development resources to unsustainable interventions. Sustainability also includes the social and environmental impacts of and risks to a project. Adverse environmental and/or social impacts can diminish or
Warren Evans Special Senior Advisor (Climate Change) at the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
even outweigh the overall development benefits of projects and pose risks to the continued stakeholder support that is needed for the continued delivery of development results.
“With any innovative
initiative, the first stage is critical” OFQ : What pioneering work is the ADB doing that could be a model for other regions? Warren Evans: Right now our biggest initiative is the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and Pacific. This is a brand new way of mobilizing climate finance, whereby donor guarantees are used to carve out part of our existing loan portfolio, take them o ff our books, and so free up a large amount of climate finance. For every US$1 billion in guarantees we estimate that we’ll be able to mobilize US$4-5 billion in climate finance. We believe this concept could be applied by virtually every Multilateral Development Bank and perhaps bilaterally as well. If we can make this work, then it could become a new model for mobilizing climate finance.
Impact evaluations of the small initial pilots can...provide a sense of the magnitude of the e ff ects that can be expected at a larger scale.
Ulrike Haarsager, OPEC Fund, Head of Development E ff ectiveness
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