Frequently Asked Questions

• What are the functional responsibilities of the Operations Evaluation Department?
• Does OPEV’s work have any impact on the Bank’s activities?
• What is the Operation Evaluation Department’s Mission?
• How is OPEV independent?
• When was OPEV established?
• How are OPEV’s work program and budget determined?
• Does OPEV evaluate all completed projects?
• What is the difference between self-evaluation and independent evaluation at the AfDB?

The Operations Evaluation Department (OPEV) of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is responsible for the independent evaluation function of the Bank. OPEV’s mission is to help the African Development Bank to foster sustainable growth and poverty reduction in Africa, through independent and influential evaluations.

The Department undertakes independently from the Bank’s operational complexes, performance evaluations of completed projects and selected on-going projects and assesses their outcomes and impact on the economic and social development of regional member countries.

It assesses the adequacy of the operational evaluation system and ensures that the lessons of experience drawn are used to improve the quality and effectiveness of Bank Group assistance strategies, policies, processes and procedures.

It also conducts thematic evaluation studies, sector policy reviews, country assistance evaluations, project evaluations as well as ad hoc reviews as may be directed by the Board of Directors.
The Department disseminates the lessons generated from independent evaluations and assists operations complexes in incorporating the lessons of experience by organizing technical workshops and seminars.

OPEV plays an advisory and catalytic role in assisting regional member countries and national or regional evaluation associations in their efforts to develop their own monitoring and evaluation capacity.

OPEV selectively organizes evaluation workshops and seminars in collaboration with the African Development Institute (EADI) and in partnership with other development agencies and international evaluation organizations.

It also collaborates with and exchanges best practices with bilateral and multilateral development agencies, with the view to harmonizing evaluation methods and practices and fostering joint evaluation of country assistance strategies, sector policies, and development projects and programs.

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Yes. Recent examples of ways in which independent evaluation has strengthened the work of the Bank include the following:

• Decentralization: Following OPEV’s Independent Evaluation of the Bank’s Decentralization Strategy and Process in 2009 [link to evaluation report], Bank management set up a Decentralization Road Map Task Team to prepare an action plan to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the decentralization process.
• Quality at Entry: OPEV’s review, Quality at Entry of Bank Operations (2005-2008) highlighted key issues affecting quality. The Bank’s Management is addressing these issues with the adoption of “Readiness Reviews” and other measures.
• OPEV’s Independent Evaluation of Project Supervision at the African Development Bank, 2001-2008, highlighted key issues affecting the Bank’s supervision systems and processes. Bank Management is addressing these through such measures as the revamping of the entire system, including the electronic management information system.
• ADF VII-IX: The OPEV independent review of ADF VII-IX (2004) influenced the design of the ADF X (2005-2007) which strengthened the focus on results and attention to sectoral and country programmes in successive ADF cycles.
• Country assistance evaluations and the review of harmonization and alignment in five countries (2007) contributed to increased efforts by the Bank to better harmonize its activities with donor partners and to ensure greater alignment behind country systems.

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OPEV’s mission is to help the African Development Bank to foster sustainable growth and poverty reduction in Africa through independent and influential evaluations.

Such evaluations assess the Bank Group’s policies, procedures and operations, review performance, and report on results in order to draw useful lessons and promote accountability. OPEV will ensure effective communication of evaluation results to the Bank’s stakeholders.

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To ensure that OPEV is operationally independent of management, the Department’s Director reports directly to the Bank’s Committee on Operations and Development Effectiveness (CODE). CODE is a committee of the Bank’s Boards of Directors.

CODE maintains oversight of OPEV’s work and approves OPEV’s work plans. OPEV’s budget, once approved by the Board, is ‘ring fenced’ (i.e. not subject to management influence or control). OPEV’s evaluation reports are submitted to CODE together with a formal response by management. CODE takes key reports for discussion, considers the evaluation lessons and recommendations presented along with the management response, and decides on action to be taken.

In addition, OPEV ‘s independent evaluation work is guided by internationally accepted principles for the evaluation of development assistance, in particular, the DAC-OECD evaluation guiding principles  and the good-practice standards issued by the Multilateral Development Banks’ Evaluation Cooperation Group  (ECG).

These guiding principles include independence, usefulness, credibility and transparency.

Independence:  Independence is central to the credibility of evaluation. Independence implies freedom from political influence and organizational pressure. It is characterized by full access to information and by full autonomy in carrying out investigations and reporting findings.

The Operations Evaluation Department (OPEV) submits its reports directly to the Boards. Management does not impose restrictions on the scope, content, conclusions and recommendations of evaluation reports.

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Evaluation at the African Development Bank dates back to 1977; however, the first evaluation unit was not set up until 1980, when a special division was created within the Bank’s Research and Planning Department. This division became an evaluation office in 1987; and a department in 1995. Its mandate was defined in 2002 by a Presidential Directive, and in 2007, the Boards of Directors approved the Independent Evaluation Policy and Functional Responsibilities of the Operations Evaluation Department (OPEV). Read more

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OPEV’s work program is a flexible three-year rolling plan that allows OPEV to accomplish its mandate and adapt the evaluation strategy and priorities to changes in the institutional environment. It also responds to the changes in development thinking and innovations in evaluation methods.

OPEV develops its three-year rolling work program based on consultations with the Board, senior management in the operations complexes and the Office of the Chief Economist. It includes evaluations of projects and programs, high level evaluations, corporate evaluations, joint evaluations, harmonization and capacity development and knowledge management for effective feedback and dissemination activities.  

The authority to select programs, policies or themes for evaluation and formulate the work program rests with the Director OPEV, under the oversight and approval of CODE.

The evaluation budget is determined on the basis of the approved work program. OPEV work program is then prioritized in the light of human and budget resources available.

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For OPEV to respond in a proactive manner to the evaluation needs of the Operations
Complexes, it seeks to ensure that evaluations focus on the priority areas that are set by senior management. These have been identified as follows:

• Governance and Fragile States
• Financing and Private Sector
• Infrastructure
• Water
• Regional Integration
• Knowledge Management

In anticipation of likely future operations orientation, the 2008-2010 and future Work Programme is oriented towards preparing evaluations that address the above themes, while continuing to give attention to frameworks and processes underpinning operations.

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Self-evaluation is primarily conducted by country operations/sector departments under Management oversight. It is the foundation of the evaluation function. Self-evaluation processes are used to measure the achievements and results of operational activities including projects, grants and technical activities and culminate in the preparation of a project completion report (PCR) at the completion of implementation of each of these activities. Self-evaluation is extended to cover country strategies, advisory and analytical work as well as Bank sector/thematic policies and strategies through the provision of country strategy completion reports, performance assessment reports of advisory and analytical work, and implementation updates of sector policies and strategies.  

Independent Evaluation is defined as an evaluation carried out by entities and persons free of the control of those responsible for the design and implementation of the development intervention. It consists of a systematic and objective assessment of an on-going or completed project, program or policy, its design, implementation and results. The aim is to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, development efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability.

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