Experts discuss successful methodologies to ensure development effectiveness in the region

Tegucigalpa. May 27, 2015. – Today, international experts from development banks met at the headquarters of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to share significant experiences at a strategic dialogue denominated, "Development Effectiveness in Central America: Lessons Learned from Evaluation." The event was held in the framework of the 2015 International Year of Evaluation.

The initiative was organized by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) through its Evaluation Office (ODE) together with the Evaluation and Supervision Office (OVE) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank.

The experts stated that impact evaluation aims to determine whether the execution of an intervention has produced the desired effects on the individuals, households, communities, national economies, industrial sectors and institutions for which it was designed.

In this regard, CABEI Executive Vice President Attorney Alejandro Rodríguez Zamora explained that evaluations at CABEI are based on an adaptation of the GPR (Corporate-Policy Project Rating) methodology of the German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG) and standards recommended by the Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG). As a result of the successful application of this evaluation methodology, over the past five years, CABEI has evaluated 191 development interventions totaling US$8.13 billion throughout the region, thereby increasing the Bank’s experience in terms of ex ante, medium and ex post evaluations

He also said that this year the Bank is working on a Regional Evaluation of CABEI’s intermediated credit operations at the final beneficiary level, using econometric methods to measure changes in the wellbeing of the end users of CABEI resources.

Mr. Jose Efrain Deras, Head of the Evaluation Office stated that “It is very important to measure development results in order to improve the effectiveness of the Bank’s development efforts. As CABEI deepens its knowledge about the development agendas of the countries, it can align its efforts with them and measure the results; this will determine the effectiveness of the development resources channeled."

For his part, Mr. Marvin Taylor, Director of the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group-Private Sector, stressed that thoroughness, independence and transparency are key evaluation elements that facilitate decision making and development effectiveness.

The meeting’s first panel discussed the subject "Improving the effectiveness of interventions: evaluative findings at the program and project level," where participants discussed different topics, such as the project cycle, execution modes, effectiveness of executing units, sector analysis and the importance of pre-investment in designing programs and projects. César Bouillon, Chief Economist at the Evaluation and Supervision Office of the Inter-American Development Bank said that, "Development effectiveness can be measured through an appropriate diagnosis and identification of an intervention’s results."

The Central American countries have similar economic, social and institutional characteristics, as well as development challenges. Therefore, the second panel dealt with the cross-cutting challenges to development effectiveness at a country level, analyzing the country’s development agendas or plans, pursuant to the criteria of performance management, ownership, alignment, harmonization and shared responsibility.

CABEI’s Evaluation Office (ODE) is an independent office attached to the CABEI Board of Directors, which is responsible for evaluating compliance with the Bank’s strategies, projects and programs in accordance with the principles, objectives and norms adopted by the Administration and/or approved by the Board of Directors and the Board of Governors to verify the effectiveness of CABEI’s contribution to the development of its founding and beneficiary countries.