SPECIAL FEATURE
Viewing projects through a development e ff ectiveness lens helps teams design and implement operations that address the recipient’s most pressing needs.
How DFIs and other impact investors assess development e ff ectiveness
Viewing development projects through a development e ff ectiveness lens helps project teams design and implement operations that address the recipient’s most pressing development needs in an e ff ective, e ffi cient and sustainable way. Development e ff ectiveness considerations are embedded in decisions by development finance institutions throughout the project cycle, from the design to the evaluation of development projects. Development e ff ectiveness specialists typically support project teams to ensure that all development e ff ectiveness aspects are considered, results set and tracked, and lessons learned extracted and fed back into new operations. Once a project is properly designed and its objective and expected results are set, project monitoring should ensure that data on the extent of achievement of targets is collected and documented. This information collection during implementation can also serve as an early warning tool to help bring projects back on track, in cases where expected development results do not materialize, or experience delays. A systematic approach to assessing and tracking development e ff ectiveness also allows for a more informed and e ffi cient evaluation process once a project is completed. Several development finance institutions use specific assessment and tracking tools and systems that help standardize and facilitate the process, provide guidance to project teams and help track e ff ectiveness
Ulrike Haarsager, OPEC Fund, Head of Development E ff ectiveness
throughout a project’s life. 10 These tools are generally guided by the development e ff ectiveness criteria outlined earlier. A large number of impact investors focused on investments in the private sector have agreed on another set of principles which reflect these same development e ff ectiveness criteria and also include guidance on the processes of including these considerations in investment decisions and monitoring (see box, left). The multitude of development challenges around the world needing to be addressed by limited development finance resources heighten the need to know what works, and why, so that resources can be used in the most e ff ective and e ffi cient way possible. Incorporating development e ff ectiveness considerations in strategic and investment decisions, and employing a systematic approach to gathering and using information on development results achieved allows DFIs to make informed choices for maximum impact.
References • https://www.oecd.org/development/e ff ectiveness/aide ff ectivenessglossary.htm • https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/european-development-policy development-e ff ectiveness_en#what-is-development-e ff ectiveness • https://www.impactprinciples.org/9-principles • https://sdgs.un.org/goals • https://www.oecd.org/development/multilateral-development-finance-2022-9fea4cf2-en.htm • https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2017/599401/EPRS_BRI(2017)599401_EN.pdf • https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/evaluation-document/35884/files/oct01-oed-working-paper.pdf • https://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/blog/rethinking-evaluation-development-e ff ectiveness • https://www.oecd.org/development/e ff ectiveness/40987004.pdf • https://www.oecd.org/dac/evaluation/daccriteriaforevaluatingdevelopmentassistance.htm • https://www.evalcommunity.com/career-center/type-of-indicators/#:~:text=Output%20indicators%20 are%20a%20type,from%20a%20program%20or%20project
10 Examples of such tools are the AIMM tool of the International Finance Corporation, the Development E ff ectiveness Matrix (DEM) of the Inter-American Development Bank, the DELTA tool of IDB Invest, the Development E ff ectiveness Rating (DERa) tool by DEG, the OFRF project-level tools of the OPEC Fund for International Development, among many others.
17
Powered by FlippingBook