Purpose
The main purpose of IFAD’s Office of Evaluation is to promote accountability and learning and to improve the performance of the Fund’s operations and policies. Evaluations provide a basis for accountability by assessing the impact of IFAD-funded activities and are expected to give an accurate analysis of successes and shortcomings – to ‘to tell it the way it is’.

Instruments

Corporate Level Evaluations are intended to assess the effectiveness and impact of IFAD policies, strategies and approaches to rural poverty alleviation. Insights and recommendations then feed into the formulation of new and more effective policies and strategies.

Country Programme Evaluations (CPE) provide an assessment of the performance and impact of IFAD-supported activities in a given country. CPEs provide concrete building blocks for reviewing and formulating country strategic opportunities papers (COSOPs) in individual countries. CPEs also contribute to IFAD’s policy dialogue with other development agencies and government representatives concerning rural and agricultural development.

Thematic Evaluations examine IFAD’s impact and performance within a particular theme or issue. They build on project evaluations and draw on a variety of external sources, including evaluation work done by other organizations and institutions on the same issue.

Project Evaluations – two types of project evaluation are carried out at different stages of the project cycle and follow the Methodological Framework for Project Evaluation (MFE).

• Interim Evaluations are mandatory before starting a further project phase or launching a similar project in the same region.
  Findings and recommendations are used to assess the justification for a further phase in a given country and for improving the design and implementation of subsequent interventions.

• Completion Evaluations are normally conducted after the finalization of the Project Completion Report prepared by the borrower, in collaboration with the cooperating institution, generally up to 18 months after the project has ended.

Work Programme and Budget

OE prepares an annual work programme and budget and presents it directly to the Executive Board for approval during the latter's annual December session. This document summarises OE’s objectives and priority areas for a given year and contains a detailed list of the evaluation activities that OE will undertake. It also defines the human and financial resources required to implement the annual work programme.

Hot links Corporate level evaluation Country programme evaluation Thematic evaluation Project evaluation Work programme and budget