Project Evaluations

Project-level evaluations are undertaken throughout the implementation cycle. The different types of project-level evaluations share the purpose of assessing implementation achievement, impact and sustainability, thus contributing to learning and ultimately to the improvement of project impact and performance.

• Interim evaluations are mandatory before embarking on a second phase of a project or launching a similar project in the same region. The findings, conclusions and recommendations of such evaluations are used as the basis for improving the design and implementation of subsequent interventions. Over the years, the number of interim evaluations has increased dramatically. In 2002, this type of evaluation accounted for more than 90 percent of all project evaluations undertaken by OE.
• Completion evaluations are normally conducted after the finalisation of the project completion report prepared by the borrower or the co-operating institution, generally 3-18 months after the project closing date.
• Mid-term evaluations are undertaken at around the mid-life of project implementation, when approximately 50 percent of the funds have been disbursed.

Thematic Evaluation

Thematic evaluations and studies are designed to assess the effectiveness of IFAD's processes and approaches and to contribute to increasing the Fund's knowledge on selected issues and subjects. In this way, thematic evaluations are expected to provide concrete building blocks for revisiting existing or formulating new and more effective operational strategies and policies. Such evaluations not only build on the findings of project evaluations but also draw on a variety of external sources, including evaluation work done by other organisations and institutions on the same theme or issue.

Country programme evaluations provide an assessment of the performance and impact of IFAD-supported activities in a given country. Based on such assessments, these evaluations are expected to provide direct and concrete inputs for revisiting existing or formulating new Country Strategy and Opportunities Papers (COSOPs). In particular, country programme evaluations are expected to provide information on the most essential aspects of project performance and to contribute to developing strategic and operational orientation for IFAD's future activities in individual countries. They are also expected to contribute elements to IFAD's policy dialogue on rural poverty alleviation.

Corporate-Level Evaluations

Corporate-level evaluations are conducted to generate insights and recommendations on policies for strategic and operational issues that are relevant across regions and sectors of IFAD interventions. These results and recommendations have a wide range of applicability over IFAD policy and the entire portfolio.

Technical Assistance Grant Evaluations

Technical assistance grant evaluations assess a technical assistance programme that is funded by an IFAD grant. The number of evaluations of technical assistance grant programmes is relatively limited since such programmes represent only a small part of overall IFAD operations and activities.