Agreement at Completion Point (ACP)

The ACP of each evaluation conducted by Office of Evaluation and Studies (OE) is an instrument of particular importance for the learning loop and the promotion of accountability. An innovation among evaluation offices of developing agencies, the ACP illustrates the stakeholder's consensus and commitment to act on and implement evaluation recommendations. This is expected to improve future project operations as well as the design and policies of future projects. Unlike the evaluation report, whose findings and conclusions are determined independently by OE, the ACP is the outcome of the work of the Core Learning Partnership (CLP) (see below). The ACP has two objectives, namely to arrive at concrete, operational recommendations which the various stakeholders understand and agree to adopt within the framework of a broad action plan which assigns responsibilities and deadlines. As such, the ACP is an instrument that helps promote the accountability of the various stakeholders. The other objective of the ACP is to flag the insights and learning hypotheses from evaluations that need further discussion and debate among the stakeholders.

The Core Learning Partnership (CLP)

For each evaluation, Office of Evaluation and Studies (OE) forms a Core Learning Partnership (CLP) made up of representatives of those stakeholders who are the main users of the evaluation outcomes. The CLP is intended to be a "real time" platform for dialogue and reflection during the evaluation process. After the completion of the independent evaluation report by OE, the main role of the CLP is to organise a process to validate the evaluation findings and deepen the partners' understanding of the findings and recommendations, as well as a division of labour and responsibilities for their implementation. This will be recorded in the Agreement at Completion Point (see above). The CLP is assigned this role because evaluations by their very nature are very often not in a position to come up with recommendations that are clear cut and that can lead immediately to adoption and action.

Evaluation Profiles

These two-page documents summarise the key conclusions from each evaluation in a reader-friendly format. The objective is to provide a ‘taste' of the evaluation and thereby encourage readers to read the executive summary or the main report. Profiles may also provide early warning signals on major issues that require immediate attention. Profiles are produced both in the original language of the evaluation and in English.

Evaluation Insights

This two-page document focuses on one key learning issue emerging from a thematic evaluation or country programme evaluation. It serves to direct attention to critical learning hypotheses and forms the basis for further discussion among professionals and policy-makers, both within and outside IFAD. Insights are prepared by OE and other members of the Core Learning Partnership. Insights will be a mandatory output of corporate-level evaluations, country programme evaluations and thematic evaluations.

Executive Summary

An executive summary is a summary of the main findings and recommendations of an evaluation.

Full report

The full evaluation report is a document that contains the executive summary, the agreement at completion point, the main report, and all appendices and annexes. It is ordinarily posted in PDF format to facilitate printing.

Lesson Learned

Lessons learned are generalizations based on findings from a number of IFAD evaluations. They are written as one-page, self-standing documents about a specific subject within a given theme. They may apply across regions, or to a single region or country.