Methodological framework for project evaluation

OE's new Methodological Framework for Project Evaluation (MFE) was introduced in 2002 - a common framework for systematic use across all IFAD's project evaluations. The MFE aims to promote a more systematic assessment of impact, facilitate the production of a consolidated picture of the results, impact and performance of IFAD projects and to help consolidate insights and learning from each evaluation.
The MFE consists of a set of criteria to be applied to all project evaluations, which are assessed by asking a number of key questions. Consistent with the consensus of international financial institutions and the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the MFE criteria also have their origin in the Strategic Framework for IFAD 2002-2005, in the need for a stronger emphasis on impact assessment and to provide accountability to IFAD's governing bodies on the Fund's performance and ultimately its contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Consistent with international practice, three main evaluation criteria provide the basis on which project achievements and impacts are to be assessed:

• performance of the project
• impact on rural poverty
• performance of the partners

Each main criterion is divided into a number of elements. The first criterion – performance of the project – captures the extent to which project objectives are consistent with the priorities of the rural poor and other stakeholders (relevance); how well the project performed in delivering against objectives (effectiveness); and how economically resources have been converted into results (efficiency). The sub-criterion of relevance focuses on the quality of project objectives: Have we done the right things? The effectiveness and efficiency sub-criteria focus on the extent the right objectives were achieved at reasonable cost: Have we done things right? The performance of the project, therefore, answers the question: Were the right things done right?

The second criterion – impact on rural poverty – assesses the changes that have occurred by project completion. IFAD defines rural poverty impact as the changes in the lives of the rural poor, intended or unintended – as perceived at the time of the evaluation – to which IFAD's interventions have contributed, as well as the likely sustainability of such changes. This definition includes elements of what in other evaluation systems may be known as results, outcomes and effects. Impact has been divided into six domains that are addressed by IFAD projects to varying degrees, and the overarching factors of sustainability, innovation and replicability / scaling up, and gender equality and women's empowerment. The six domains consider the impacts on: physical and financial assets; human assets; social capital and people's empowerment; food security; environment and communal resource base; and institutions, policies and the regulatory framework.
The third criterion – performance of the partners – requires separate assessments of the performance of the primary partners in the project: IFAD, the cooperating institution (CI), the government agencies responsible for implementing the project, NGOs and CBOs involved in project implementation, and the project co-financiers. This criterion addresses how well IFAD and its partners identified, prepared and supervised the project, and the contribution each made to project success during implementation.

While the evaluation criteria summarized above serve to clarify what has happened in the project, they are also intended logically to lead to further questions, such as: "Why did things go the way they did?" Or if there were shortcomings: "How can such problems be avoided in future?" Where there are successes: "What are the main ingredients responsible for the success?" "How could the project be replicated or scaled up?" By asking these questions, the evaluation exercise will generate lessons and insights.

Consistent application of the framework ensures that project impacts are systematically assessed, that results and performance are comparable across projects, that generic lessons are more easily identified, and that an annual consolidation of the performance and results of a group of projects is more feasibly provided. Building on the MFE, the first ‘Annual Report on the Results and Impact of IFAD Operations' (ARRI) was presented to IFAD's management and the Executive Board in September 2003.