IDB advances efforts to increase development effectiveness

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has significantly improved the way it measures development impact and tracks the performance of its projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the bank’s 2011 report, Development Effectiveness Overview.
The report also measures the IDB’s progress in 2011 on 27 indicators that summarise the bank’s contributions to the region’s economic and social development. Twelve million people benefitted from antipoverty programmes financed by the IDB, more than 2.5 million students in the region benefitted from the bank’s education projects and 2.5 million farmers won access to improved agricultural services and investments during the year, the report stated.
This third edition of the Development Effectiveness Overview examines the way the bank designs projects, how it evaluates their impact, and how aligned the bank’s investments are with the most urgent development needs of borrowing member countries.
The report measures the IDB’s progress on reaching the expected results agreed upon by the bank’s governors during the ninth general capital increase.
“This report shows that our sustained efforts to improve our development effectiveness are paying off,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “We are not only becoming a more transparent and accountable institution, but we also are learning important lessons on what approaches work best to resolve our region’s development challenges.”
In terms of lending, the IDB is close to achieving all the targets that were established in 2010, when the bank’s governors approved a $ 71 billion capital increase. Lending to small and vulnerable countries and to support environment-friendly initiatives reached 36 per cent and 33 per cent of the bank’s loans approved last year, respectively, already exceeding initial targets of 35 per cent and 25 per cent set for 2015.
Meanwhile, lending for poverty and inequality reduction reached 49 per cent, close to the target of 50 per cent for 2015. Lending for regional cooperation and integration reached 12 per cent, just three percentage points below the 2015 target of 15 per cent.
The IDB has continued to improve the design of its projects, instruments and processes that are used to measure their development impact, the report said. All projects approved by the IDB in 2011 provided sufficient information to meaningfully measure and document results, meeting minimum evaluability thresholds, a key requirement in the latest capital increase agreement. Eighty-six per cent of sovereign guaranteed projects, in fact, were rated as “highly evaluable” as compared to 41 per cent in 2010.
The share of projects with rigorous evaluation plans reached 31 per cent in 2011, one of the highest levels among all multilateral development institutions, up from only eight per cent four years ago, according to the report.
Moreover, all projects included cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analyses.
The Development Effectiveness Overview also describes a number of bank projects, showing how they not only incorporated lessons learned from previous experiences, but also introduced important innovations to help solve key development problems in member countries, including rigorous impact-evaluation methodology.
For example, last year, the IDB approved a $ 50 million grant to rebuild Haitian schools and improve the quality of education, drawing from the experience of the rebuilding of New Orleans’ educational system after Katrina.
To support the Bahamas in reforming its air transportation system, the bank drew lessons from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all countries with relatively small populations scattered over large geographic areas.
Another important innovation brought to the region by the bank is related to citizens security, one of the top problems faced by Latin America and the Caribbean.
The IDB is helping Ecuador build a state-of-the-art system to improve the compilation of crime data in order to anticipate and prevent crime.
Information will be displayed on a map that will allow the country to determine crime hot-spots and develop specific policies and police actions to reduce violence. The project draws from successful experiences related to hotspot policing in cities such as Boston and Seattle, which managed to reduce youth violence and crime.
The bank has also advanced in its efforts to measure the outcomes of IDB development programmes in borrowing-member countries, according to the report. So far, 65 per cent of all country strategies have been prepared under the bank’s rigorous results-based framework, and the remaining 35 per cent of the country strategies will be approved this year.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has significantly improved the way it measures development impact and tracks the performance of its projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the bank’s 2011 report, Development Effectiveness Overview.The report also measures the IDB’s progress in 2011 on 27 indicators that summarise the bank’s contributions to the region’s economic and social development. Twelve million people benefitted from antipoverty programmes financed by the IDB, more than 2.5 million students in the region benefitted from the bank’s education projects and 2.5 million farmers won access to improved agricultural services and investments during the year, the report stated.This third edition of the Development Effectiveness Overview examines the way the bank designs projects, how it evaluates their impact, and how aligned the bank’s investments are with the most urgent development needs of borrowing member countries.The report measures the IDB’s progress on reaching the expected results agreed upon by the bank’s governors during the ninth general capital increase.“This report shows that our sustained efforts to improve our development effectiveness are paying off,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “We are not only becoming a more transparent and accountable institution, but we also are learning important lessons on what approaches work best to resolve our region’s development challenges.” In terms of lending, the IDB is close to achieving all the targets that were established in 2010, when the bank’s governors approved a $ 71 billion capital increase. Lending to small and vulnerable countries and to support environment-friendly initiatives reached 36 per cent and 33 per cent of the bank’s loans approved last year, respectively, already exceeding initial targets of 35 per cent and 25 per cent set for 2015.Meanwhile, lending for poverty and inequality reduction reached 49 per cent, close to the target of 50 per cent for 2015. Lending for regional cooperation and integration reached 12 per cent, just three percentage points below the 2015 target of 15 per cent.The IDB has continued to improve the design of its projects, instruments and processes that are used to measure their development impact, the report said. All projects approved by the IDB in 2011 provided sufficient information to meaningfully measure and document results, meeting minimum evaluability thresholds, a key requirement in the latest capital increase agreement. Eighty-six per cent of sovereign guaranteed projects, in fact, were rated as “highly evaluable” as compared to 41 per cent in 2010.The share of projects with rigorous evaluation plans reached 31 per cent in 2011, one of the highest levels among all multilateral development institutions, up from only eight per cent four years ago, according to the report.Moreover, all projects included cost-benefit or cost-effectiveness analyses. The Development Effectiveness Overview also describes a number of bank projects, showing how they not only incorporated lessons learned from previous experiences, but also introduced important innovations to help solve key development problems in member countries, including rigorous impact-evaluation methodology.For example, last year, the IDB approved a $ 50 million grant to rebuild Haitian schools and improve the quality of education, drawing from the experience of the rebuilding of New Orleans’ educational system after Katrina.To support the Bahamas in reforming its air transportation system, the bank drew lessons from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all countries with relatively small populations scattered over large geographic areas.Another important innovation brought to the region by the bank is related to citizens security, one of the top problems faced by Latin America and the Caribbean.The IDB is helping Ecuador build a state-of-the-art system to improve the compilation of crime data in order to anticipate and prevent crime.Information will be displayed on a map that will allow the country to determine crime hot-spots and develop specific policies and police actions to reduce violence. The project draws from successful experiences related to hotspot policing in cities such as Boston and Seattle, which managed to reduce youth violence and crime.The bank has also advanced in its efforts to measure the outcomes of IDB development programmes in borrowing-member countries, according to the report. So far, 65 per cent of all country strategies have been prepared under the bank’s rigorous results-based framework, and the remaining 35 per cent of the country strategies will be approved this year.