4.  Values, Vision and Mission

15. Based on the values generated at past workshops, a set of core values has been defined to support OE as envisioned in the future (see Box 3).

16. Following a review of feedback from the aforementioned user survey and of OE’s aspirations for the future, a Vision Statement has been drawn up supported by a set of values (see Box 4).

Box 4 OE Vision OE wishes to promote a learning porcess that deepens its understanding of the cause of and solutions to rural poverty through enhanced cooperation with the Fund's partners. With its partners, OE wishes to use that knowledge to develop supportive instruments for the rural poor to empower themselves.

17. The Mission Statement (Box 5) describes OE’s changing relationship with the partnership it serves. Together with PMD, governments, implementing organizations, CBOs and other stakeholders, OE seeks to generate knowledge and find solutions to improving the Fund’s strategies, policies, projects, practices and procedures and to strengthen the capabilities of its partners.

Box 5 OE Mission With its partners and through evaluation work, OE generates good practices, lessons learned and strategic directions that can improve the performance of policies, programmes and projects.

It also strives to draw lessons from previous experience so as to obtain a greater understanding of the causes of and solutions to rural poverty, and consequently recommends strategic directions for the Fund’s interventions. The immediate aim is to improve the design and implementation of IFAD projects, programmes and policies as well as to assist and empower CBOs to become effective and sustainable agents in the alleviation of rural poverty.

Box 6 Basic Concepts Vision statements are designed to motivate the team. They tend to be inspirational and about the team’s aspirations for the future. A vision is based on a set of values that drive it and give it meaning. While a mission is derived from the vision and values, it is operational in nature. It provides a clear description of how OE will serve its clients’ interests with high-quality and responsive interventions. For this reason, a mission statement must be grounded in a clear definition of the client or partnership and of the kinds of products or services the team will deliver. Finally, strategy is a practical interpretation of the mission. The term Strategic Objectives has been used to define this and the term Strategic Directions to describe how they will be operationalized. In these times of rapid change and organizational growth, strategy is not a fixed plan but rather an evolving one. For OE’s purposes, strategy is a discovery process and certainly not a one-time event. It states how the team will focus its resources (people, time and money) on specific interventions that are strategic to the interests of its clients. This set of agreements provides the basis for developing annual work programmes.

5. Defining OE’s Strategic Objectives

18. OE established a framework of strategic objectives (see Box 7) for the purpose of setting a course of strategic interventions for the coming year. Again, these objectives were based on OE’s new Vision and Mission Statements, as well as on an analysis of many partners’ needs and the concerns expressed during the July 1999 survey.

Box 7 OE's Strategic Objectives Evaluation work should be issues-oriented and respond to the needs of its partners OE's work must offer opportunities for learning and knowledge generation together with its partners. Evaluation work should produce learning effects and recommendations that are agreed to and adopted by OE's parnters and lead to imporved IFAD operations, policies and strategies that can be replicated.

19. The aim of OE is to undertake evaluations that provide opportunities for improved performance (projects, programmes and policies); respond to the needs of its partners and are thus issues-oriented; offer opportunities for learning and knowledge generation together with its partners; produce learning effects and recommendations for use by partners; and create opportunities for replication and the dissemination of knowledge to other stakeholders in the development community.

6. Four Main Features of OE’s New Approach to Evaluation

Box 8 Four Main Features A strong service and partnership orientation Evaluation work is working together Moving evaluation to a higher plane Evaluation work needs to be evaluated

20. This approach to evaluation represents a new mindset: OE’s partners and their needs now take centre stage. OE wishes to be of service by providing practical solutions for use by partners in improving their operations and policies. OE’s evaluations must create value for its partners and its work must meet their expectations and needs.

21. Other distinctive features of the strategic objectives are OE’s understanding that evaluation work is inseparable from learning, and its resolve to learn with its partners and develop together with them the recommendations and lessons learned to help improve the performance of IFAD’s operations. As OE learns and shares learning in a cooperative relationship with its partners, it can increase the likelihood of their adopting and using its products and services.

22. Although project evaluations are indeed important, they are not the most cost-effective instrument at OE’s disposal. Through thematic evaluations/studies and country programme evaluations (CPEs), it is possible to have a multiplier effect and impact on several projects, programmes and policies and to contribute in a systematic way to the generation of the knowledge that IFAD and its operational divisions require. It is for this reason that, in future, OE intends to reduce its involvement in project evaluations and to move on to a higher plane.

23. Another key feature of OE’s new strategy is recognition of the need to evaluate the validity of its work on a continuous basis. In the past, OE has not assessed the rate of adoption of its recommendations and of lessons learned. Has it indeed been successful? Did it contribute to any kind of impact? OE has recognized that it needs to establish criteria for evaluating the validity of its evaluation work. These criteria are the rate of adoption and use by partners of its evaluation work and the impact of such use in terms of improved performance of IFAD’s operations and policies (see Box 9).

24. It is to be noted, however, that OE’s accountability normally stops at the dissemination of recommendations and lessons learned. In other words, their adoption and use is the responsibility of the partners. Therefore, OE should take a more proactive approach to working with its partners so as to reduce any uncertainty between the validity of such interventions and the use to which they are put. OE’s products and services are designed to respond to the strategic requirements and priorities of its partnership. It can also use collaborative and engaging processes in order to build in ownership of the recommendations. That is, rather than leaving adoption and use to the readers of its reports, OE could conceive the evaluation process in such a way that its outcomes would be in the form of an agreement/understanding among the partners to act on the recommendations and the lessons identified by the evaluation.