The Governing Council at its 26th Session in February 2003 approved the recommendation of the Consultation of the Sixth Replenishment of IFAD's Resources to undertake an Independent External Evaluation of IFAD (IEE) before the commencement of the consultations for the Seventh Replenishment. The IEE will begin in late 2003 and be completed by December 2004.

The IEE has the main objective to determine IFAD's contributions to rural poverty reduction, its results and impact, and the relevance of IFAD's mission in relation to international development goals and national development aims of borrowing Member States. Details of the organization of the IEE are provided in the newsletter.

The Executive Board will review the final report of the IEE in December 2004 and submit its recommendations on the report to the Governing Council in 2005. The Board has entrusted the Director of the Office of Evaluation to manage the process of the selection of the team undertaking the evaluation including its Terms of Reference and administration of its budget. The Director, OE, in carrying out these duties will have the benefit of the advice of Mr. Robert Picciotto, former Director-General of the Operations Evaluation Department of the World Bank, and Professor M. S. Swaminathan, Chairman and founder of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, India. A Steering Committee composed of representatives of Member States will provide guidance to the process. The report of the IEE will, however, be fully independent.

After a process of international tendering, the U.K.-based consulting firm of Information Training and Development (ITAD) was selected to undertake the IEE. The ITAD team will be led by Mr. Derek Poate, the Chairman of ITAD. The team will have three senior experts and a number of other consultants who will undertake field studies as well as desk studies of IFAD operations.

While the IEE will be fully independent, members of the team will require close interaction and discussion with IFAD staff and support in the provision of documents and other material. I believe this interaction will help us reflect on our considerable experience of the various dimensions of poverty reduction programmes. The insights it generates would help to enhance further the effectiveness of the Fund's impact and constitute an important opportunity to provide a thrust to our efforts to keep IFAD at the forefront of the effort to eradicate poverty. This is especially relevant at a time when poverty reduction has been recognised as the overarching goal of international development cooperation.

Senior Management looks forward to meeting the IEE team to start the process within IFAD. In order to provide meaningful and coordinated support to the evaluation team, I have established an IEE Coordination Group chaired by the Assistant President, PMD, with representatives from all departments.

I welcome greatly this initiative and I am sure that all IFAD staff will make an effective contribution to the work of the Independent External Evaluation Team.

Lennart Båge
December 2003