Research Series Issue 12 - An evidence-based assessment of IFAD’s end-of-project reporting

Project Completion Reports (PCRs) are a critical tool for development organizations, both for accountability purposes, and as a means of learning from project experience to inform the design of future operations. This paper analyses a sample of PCRs from IFAD to assess the extent to which evidence is used to determine a project's effectiveness in bringing about development.

The report finds that most claims on results are not supported by evidence, and discusses implications for the objective measurement of development effectiveness.