The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) has prepared an evaluation synthesis report on “Government performance in IFAD-supported operations (2010-2020)".

The synthesis takes a broad approach to review government performance in the context of IFAD projects, in terms of institutional efficiency, prevailing enabling conditions, and the structures, capacities and processes that should be in place to successfully transform financial and non-financial resources into operational results.

The report’s findings include that government is the key player in IFAD’s development effectiveness and has a critical function in project performance. However, government performance has deteriorated over the review period, a decline that – contrary to what may be expected – cannot be explained by performance in either low-income countries or countries with fragile situations.

The reasons for lagging government performance are not well documented and understood, and there are significant knowledge gaps on the factors driving government performance. However, the synthesis did gain important insight in this respect, learning for example that governments perform better if they have ownership of the programme, and if continuous learning and adaptation are adequately supported. Even in situations of political change and/or crisis, governments can play their role if there is continuous engagement and flexibility to build trust and ownership.