IFAD, like several other organisations, is fully committed to a Management of Development Results (MfDR) approach in the projects and country programmes it supports, and within IFAD itself. By adopting MfDR IFAD aims to better plan, monitor, measure, report, and more proactively manage for results. The establishment and operation of such a comprehensive and integrated system is guided by the need to ensure:

• Consistency between strategic planning and operational planning at all levels, combined with alignment between the programme area (or global, regional, country programmes and projects) and the organisational areas (for departments, divisions and individuals).
• Proactive performance monitoring and assessment at all levels, and use of this information in decision-making and learning.

Several results-oriented reforms have been implemented recently through IFAD’s Action Plan for its Development Effectiveness, including: the reformulation of IFAD’s Strategic Framework, the establishment of results-based Country Strategies and Programmes, an enhanced quality-at-entry process, a supervision policy, knowledge management and innovation strategies, and enhanced country presence. With the mainstreaming of these reforms into IFAD’s regular organizational and programming processes, a system for monitoring IFAD’s internal performance was required to ensure that all activities remained aligned with the Fund’s corporate goals and objectives and focused on development outcomes, with clearer internal and external accountability for their achievement. 

IFAD’s overall framework for MfDR is set out in the figure below. The top tier focuses on development effectiveness, starting with reference to the objectives of the IFAD Strategic Framework 2007-2010, followed by those of the results-based Country Strategies and Programmes, to be measured in turn through the Results Measurement Framework containing measures and targets for 2010 agreed by IFAD’s Executive Board. Achievement of the Fund’s strategic objectives is in turn sustained through organizational-level results – corporate management results (CMRs) – which are managed within the Corporate Planning and Performance Management System (CPPMS).

In the area of country programming, the implementation of the results-based Country Strategies and Programmes and the country programme management system will take a vital set of processes into the area of measured and managed performance. The CPPMS and the CMRs are providing a key point of reference for allocating the resources of the whole organization by focusing work on development effectiveness and what underpins it. Taken together these elements represent a qualitative leap forward in transparent accountability to IFAD’s members – and in the possibility of real-time management of all aspects of the organization to achieve its objectives.