IFAD's project design cycle

Project development includes the project concept note, detailed project design and design completion.

Project implementation includes supervision, the mid-term review and project completion.

Results-based country strategic opportunities programme

A country strategic opportunities programme (COSOP) is a framework for making strategic choices about IFAD operations in a country, identifying opportunities for IFAD financing and related partnerships, and facilitating management for results.

The central objective of a COSOP is to ensure that IFAD country operations produce a positive impact on poverty. The document reviews the specific rural poverty situation as a basis for determining geographic sites where IFAD will operate and related thematic areas. It also highlights the innovation that IFAD intends to promote in the country programme.

The COSOP discusses policy and institutional aspects that affect the outcome of IFAD operations and their impact on the poor. These include, inter alia, local governance and the participation and empowerment of the poor as the main determinants of an enabling environment for the success of pro-poor projects. The COSOP also includes an overview of IFAD's previous operations in the country and the lessons learned (particularly from evaluation studies), and integrates these lessons into future operational directions.

To ensure strong country ownership, the COSOP design and implementation process is based on wide stakeholder consultation. The COSOP is also aligned with the country's poverty reduction or national development strategy, and with other relevant planning frameworks at the country level.

The COSOP clearly indicates potential strategic partners among multilateral and bilateral donors, taking into account the comparative advantage of IFAD and the scope for synergies.

New project design process

The project design process is the operational process for designing high-quality development projects that respond to the realities in the field and the needs and aspirations of the project's partners - especially poor rural women and men themselves. It is also the process by which the provisions of the host country's strategies for rural poverty reduction, on the one hand, and those of the IFAD Strategic Framework 2011-2015 and its other linked strategies and policies, on the other, shape IFAD-supported projects and are reflected in them. The specific objective of the project design is to deliver project designs that enhance the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of IFAD-supported projects.

The project design process will typically involve the following sequence of activities:

Project concept

The project concept will initially be elaborated as part of the COSOP formulation. This will establish the initial framework for project processing. For countries without a COSOP, the project concept will be derived from consultation with the Government and relevant stakeholders, followed by the project design. A project life file will be initiated at the concept stage.

Detailed project design and quality enhancement

The detailed project design will be reflected in a project design report (PDR). The PDR is conceived as a "living document". It will remain the main project document throughout the entire design process, retaining the same format throughout the process, although the content of relevant sections may be updated as the project design evolves through consultations with the government and concerned partners. The PDR will cover:

• strategic context and rationale for IFAD's involvement, commitment and partnership
• poverty, social capital and targeting
• project description
• implementation and institutional arrangements
• project benefits, costs and financing
• project risks and sustainability
• innovative features, learning and knowledge management.

Arrangements are also made for systematic improvements to the project quality, in the light of IFAD's own quality enhancement process, including a self-assessment by the initiating IFAD unit - based on a set of key success factors - complemented by substantive observations and suggestions through a technical review by internal and external peer reviewers.

Design completion and quality assurance

Once the PDR has reached its design completion point, the final step in the process will be for independent quality assurance. Following a satisfactory review of the final PDR, the President's Report and the draft loan agreement are finalized.

Negotiation and approval

Negotiations are undertaken between IFAD and the borrower, using the design completion report as the basis for the financing agreement. IFAD's Executive Board then reviews and - if it so deems - approves the IFAD loan/grant for the project.

Subsequent to Board approval, the financing agreement is signed between IFAD and the borrower.

Implementation

Implementation starts once the borrower has fulfilled specified conditions allowing IFAD to declare the loan/grant effective. IFAD-financed projects are implemented by national staff with support and guidance from IFAD headquarters and country presence staff, as applicable.

The IFAD Policy on Supervision and Implementation Support, approved in December 2006, provides for two supervision modalities - IFAD supervision and cooperating institution supervision - and a range of approaches that effectively respond to concrete country and programme realities.

IFAD carries out regular portfolio review as part of its portfolio management activities.

At the end of the implementation period, the government, in collaboration with IFAD, prepares a completion report, with special emphasis on the operations's impact.

Evaluation

The Office of Evaluation is responsible for evaluating IFAD's operations and policies. In April 2003, the IFAD Evaluation Policy was adopted. The Office of Evaluation is now independent and reports directly to IFAD's Executive Board.

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