The overarching objective of the Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) at the AfDB is to enhance and advance the development effectiveness of the AfDB’s operations across its regional member countries (RMCs) through independent evaluations of varied aspects of the Bank’s work, proactive engagement in evaluation partnerships, knowledge-sharing, and learning activities. IDEV also collaborates with evaluation departments in bilateral and multilateral development agencies, and undertakes joint evaluation of co-financed projects and programs.
The work of IDEV is underpinned by an evaluation strategy, which emphasizes learning from evaluations and promoting an evaluation culture, both within the Bank Group and across the RMCs. IDEV’s plan of work is designed to meet three key objectives: accountability, learning, and the promotion of an evaluation culture in the Bank as well as in RMCs. In this context, IDEV’s Evaluation Capacity Development (ECD) initiatives strive to enhance, advance and facilitate the demand for, and use of, evaluation knowledge in policy- and decision-making across RMCs.
IDEV’s work support on ECD, therefore, encompasses strengthening national evaluation systems; nurturing and managing networks and communities of practice; developing the capacities of policy and decision-makers (parliamentarians) across Africa; and actively supporting national governments across Africa to systematically demand and utilize evaluative knowledge while exchanging experiences and learning from each other.
To carry out its ECD mandate in an effective and efficient manner, IDEV strategically scans the ECD landscape to determine who are the other key players, and then determines with whom to work in partnership, collaborate, broker, as well as when to forge ahead alone. As a result, IDEV works with a myriad of stakeholders such as regional and global development partners, evaluators, Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs), and networks/Communities of practice (CoPs) - as it promotes both the supply of and demand for evaluative knowledge and makes sure the contextual factors shaping RMCs are acknowledged to achieve optimal impact.