KfW Development Bank learns from our evaluation results. We present our results for the various interested parties with demand-based, high-quality and up-to-date products in modern formats.
We focus on KfW's internal addressees to improve the quality of Financial Cooperation (FC). To this end, we offer sectoral and methodological training, contribute our knowledge during the preparation of new projects, summarise cross-sectoral findings and make the wealth of evaluations digitally accessible. As own experiences are crucial, colleagues from the operational departments of KfW Development Bank also evaluate projects as secondees (secondment system).
We publish the ex-post evaluation reports in our Interactive Database Evaluation and Learning (IDEaL) and in KfW Development Bank's transparency database. Every two years, we publish the results of our work in a comprehensive report for the wider public. In this way we create transparency and account for the results of FC. We share our expertise and findings with the scientific community and the specialist public through publications, papers, presentations and engagement in relevant networks.
We support evidence-based decision-making processes by providing evaluation results in our interactive application Interactive Database Evaluation and Learning (IDEaL). IDEaL provides the systematically generated and structured evidence from all ex-post evaluations in a form that can be used efficiently and effectively. IDEaL is therefore a centrepiece of our systematic institutional learning.
With IDEaL, FC Evaluation makes all evaluation results and reports written since 2007 available to the public in one application, collected and digitised: Project information, lessons learnt and target systems used make it possible to search precisely for best practices and failures from completed projects. With just a few clicks, you can find exactly the evaluations you need for planning new projects, for example. It can be for specific issues by using keywords and the reports can be filtered by region, sector and type of organisation.
The central instrument of institutional learning is the "role reversal" between the operational departments of KfW Development Bank and FC Evaluation through the secondment system. We assign the implementation of an ex-post evaluation to seconded portfolio managers of KfW Development Bank, supervise the colleagues during the task and bear overall responsibility. When matching the EPE, we ensure that no conflicts of loyalty arise, and that independence is maintained. For this reason, employees are only assigned to evaluations outside the remit of their own department. It is also ensured that they have not previously held responsibility for the project they are now evaluating.
The role reversal provides the secondees with the necessary change of perspective in order to break through patterns that may prevent a more successful implementation of projects. Thus, the secondees look at a project that is unknown to them in an unfamiliar context with the values and standards of an independent evaluation. The exchange with the local project executing agency and the department at KfW managing the project as well as other stakeholders creates a framework for orientation, as does the personal sectoral experience of the secondees. In the best-case scenario, all those involved in the evaluation learn directly from this experience, while FC Evaluation prepares and disseminates the results in its "institutional learning" formats.
