The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) has prepared its first evaluation synthesis note (ESN) on Targeting in IFAD-supported projects. The ESN consolidated evidence from IOE evaluations on IFAD’s achievements and challenges in targeting poor rural people, in order to provide timely inputs to the updating of the IFAD policy on targeting.

The ESN confirms that targeting poor rural people is central to IFAD’s mandate and to realizing its comparative advantage. IFAD’s updated 2019 Revised Guidelines on Targeting are more in line with Agenda 2030 and its mandate to “leave no one behind”. However, in practice, more attention has been given to targeting the active poor, compared to reaching and empowering the extremely poor. In addition, IFAD’s claim to undertake “people-centred development” is not fully internalized and does not permeate project cycles and action.

IOE recognizes that several of the findings reported in this ESN have effectively been used to shape IFAD’s targeting policies. For the future, resources should be prioritized to enable monitoring, evaluation and learning on how poor rural people benefit from IFAD’s support.