In October 2002, the Management Board of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD) (1) approved the establishment of a project evaluation process for those projects receiving funding from the Special Multilateral Fund of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (FEMCIDI). In accordance with this decision, a proposal for the evaluation process was presented, which stated, in short, that the following aspects should be taken into account:

•  “The process of evaluation should be seen as part of the commitment of the member states and IACD to achieve a better performance and results in the delivery of technical cooperation.”

•  “It should be noted that at the present time we are referring to a results evaluation or ex-post evaluation. (…) This type of evaluation focuses on the extent to which the project produced its expected outputs and therefore achieved its purpose (effectiveness), and also on the extent to which a project inputs were supplied and managed and activities organized in the most appropriate manner at the least cost to produce the necessary outputs (efficiency). Impact evaluations could be part of a later stage of the process.”

•  “The ex-post evaluation of projects will involve the participation of the IACD, the Offices of the General Secretariat in the member states, the executing institutions and independent consultants. Projects will be selected from all priority areas“.

Objective of the FEMCIDI Evaluation Process

The evaluation of the FEMCIDI-funded projects will have several benefits for all parties involved, including:

•  External resources of funding could be approached to obtain financing or co-financing for successful projects that could be replicated at the national or regional level.

•  Patterns can be identified as to why some projects are successful and others do not reach the intended objectives. The countries, the executing institutions and the SEDI can then use this knowledge to improve project design and implementation.

•  There will be better reporting to the member states and possible donors of the use of the technical cooperation resources.

The evaluation themes

The process should permit to assess the relevance, the effectiveness, and the efficiency of the FEMCIDI-financed projects selected for evaluation. The evaluation process seeks to establish the results achieved on the basis of what was expected at the start of the projects. It examines the gaps, if any, between ‘expected' and ‘achieved' results and finds the explanations/reasons for these gaps. It also assesses the sustainability of the projects' results. Finally, it draws lessons to be learned from the execution of the projects, and highlights the factors of success and failures/difficulties, as well as ‘best practices' observed.

SEDI, for the purpose of its end of project evaluations, uses the following DAC accepted definitions (2):

•  Relevance: the extent to which the development objectives of the project are consistent with beneficiaries' requirements, countries' need, and donor priorities;

•  Effectiveness: the extent to which the development objectives of the project were achieved;

•  Efficiency: a measure of how economically resources/inputs (funds, expertise, time, etc.) are converted to results;

•  Impact: positive and negative, primary and long term effects produced by development interventions;

•  Results: the outputs, outcome or impact of development activities;

•  Sustainability: the probability of continued long-term benefits.

(1) The Management Board of the IACD still functions as a regulating political body for FEMCIDI; however, the administration of FEMCIDI is currently within the SEDI.

(2) DAC. Glossary of key terms in evaluation and results-based management. DAC-OECD. 2002