Part Three: Summary of High-Level Responsibilities

This part of the document summarizes the role of the Executive Board in evaluation; the current composition, role and responsibility of the Board’s Evaluation Committee;
and the terms of reference of the OE Director.

I. Role of the Executive Board in Evaluation

IFAD’s Executive Board is the Fund’s oversight body for all purposes. In accordance with the role that it has specified for itself in relation to evaluation, the Board will:

(i) oversee IFAD’s independent evaluation and assess the overall quality and impact of IFAD programmes and projects as documented in evaluation reports;

(ii) approve policies aimed at enhancing the independence and effectiveness of the evaluation function;

(iii) receive directly from OE all evaluation reports, including the annual report on the results and impact of IFAD operations;

(iv) approve the TOR and rules of procedure of the Evaluation Committee, which it has established to enhance and fortify its role in evaluation;

(v) endorse the appointment, removal and renewal of service of the OE Director; and

(vi) approve the OE’s annual work programme and recommend to the Governing Council the approval of OE’s budget.

II. Evaluation Committee

The following is a summary of the current status and role and responsibility of the Evaluation Committee as approved by the Board in 1999 (document EB 99/68/R.12 of the Sixty-Eighth Session of the Executive Board, December 1999).

A. Composition and Chairpersonship

Established in 1987, the Evaluation Committee is made up of nine members drawn from the 36 Executive Board members and alternate members: four countries from List A, two from List B and three from List C. Committee members are elected by the Executive Board for a three-year term of office, coinciding with that of the Executive Board. The Sixty-First Session of the Executive Board (September 1997) decided that the chairpersonship of the Evaluation Committee would remain permanently with List B and C countries. During the Sixtieth Session (April 1997), the Board endorsed a proposal to allow other Executive Directors to sit in during Committee sessions as observers.

B. Terms of Reference

The Evaluation Committee was established to assist the Executive Board by undertaking in-depth reviews of a selected number of evaluations and studies, relieving the Board of those duties. Until 1999, its work was governed by organizational principles, adopted at its First Session, that stated that the Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board should be applied, mutatis mutandis, to the work of the Evaluation Committee. In 1999, the Committee proposed replacing those principles with a TOR and Rules of Procedure (reproduced in Annex IV of this document together with a summary of the most significant changes introduced through the TOR). The Board approved the TOR of the Evaluation Committee as follows:

(i) to enhance the ability of the Executive Board to assess the overall quality and impact of IFAD programmes and projects through a discussion of selected evaluations and reviews conducted by the Office of Evaluation and Studies, as well as to fortify the Board’s knowledge of lessons learned in IFAD’s programmes and projects and to enable Member States to better assess the Fund’s role in the pursuit of a global development strategy;

(ii) to discuss with the Office of Evaluation and Studies the scope and contents of its annual work programme and strategic directions;

(iii) to satisfy itself that the Fund has an effective and efficient evaluation function;

(iv) to report to the Executive Board on the Committee’s work and, as appropriate, make recommendations and seek guidance on evaluation issues of policy and strategic importance; and

(v) to undertake field visits, as and when required, and participate in evaluation missions, workshops, round-table meetings and related activities in order to assist the Evaluation Committee in conducting its duties.

C. Considerations for the Future

The Board will review, or entrust the Evaluation Committee to review, the role of the Committee in light of the evaluation policy contained in this document. As indicated by the Consultation on the Sixth Replenishment of IFAD’s Resources, any proposals to change the Committee’s role and responsibilities shall take into account, among other considerations, the potential workload and cost implications for the Evaluation Committee and IFAD. They will also have to pay special attention to the fact that IFAD’s Executive Board and its Evaluation Committee are non-resident governing bodies, and that currently the Committee meets three times every year and reviews about six of the 20-25 reports issued each year by OE.

III. Terms of Reference of the Director of OE

The OE Director will be responsible directly to the Executive Board for the implementation of IFAD’s evaluation policy as described in this document. His or her TOR will incorporate all the responsibilities for managing OE as the independent evaluation function of the Fund in accordance with its rules and procedures. These responsibilities will include, inter alia:

(i) managing OE as an effective, efficient and independent evaluation function of the Fund;

(ii) developing operational policies, strategies and related instruments to enhance the independence and effectiveness of the evaluation function;

(iii) ensuring high-quality professional work by instituting the necessary enabling environment for and coaching of OE staff and setting quality standards for OE outputs;

(iv) formulating and implementing the annual work programme agreed upon by IFAD’s Executive Board and reporting directly to the Executive Board on evaluation issues;

(v) communicating evaluation results to stakeholders and the general public;

(vi) assisting IFAD’s operations and IFAD-assisted projects in the development of their self-assessment capacity; and

(vii) cooperating with the heads of evaluation of other international financial institutions and development agencies.