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    Vision and mission - our evaluation policy

    Vision

    We improve the effectiveness of Financial Cooperation (FC) in line with the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by supporting FC projects with our evaluation expertise by critically assessing them, and by identifying lessons learned for future projects.

    Mission Statement

    We combine internal and external evaluation expertise to systematically assess the effects of completed FC projects and to support ongoing FC projects by means of impact evaluations. We enhance institutional learning by facilitating evaluation results in products that are tailored to the target group and can be used efficiently. We are committed to professional excellence, continuous skills enhancement and innovation.

    About us

    As an agile team of sector experts with scientific and/or operational experience, we see ourselves as a “knowledge hub” for evaluation and impact measurement within KfW Development Bank. We cooperate with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and network with other national and international institutions dedicated to evaluating development cooperation. The involvement of local partners and their interests and learning objectives are important to us. Our work incorporates relevant standards of the evaluation community (DeGEval, OECD-DAC) and of empirical research, in particular with respect to the protection of personal rights and the anonymity of personal data as well as an ethical code of conduct.

    Effectiveness of Financial Cooperation

    We are an independent evaluation department that uses recognised and modern methods within three pillars of evaluation work.:

    Ex-post evaluations

    • Every year, we draw a representative random sample of completed FC projects, stratified by sector, for ex post evaluation (EPE).
    • We conduct ex-post evaluations ourselves and work together with external experts and secondees from the operational departments of KfW Development Bank.
    • Ex-post evaluations have been carried out systematically by the FC Evaluation Unit since 2000. They promote accountability and provide the key knowledge base for institutional learning.
    • Ex-post evaluations are carried out systematically on the basis of the OECD-DAC criteria.
    • Ex-post evaluations are the main pillar of our evaluation work.

    KfW Development Impact Lab

    • We support ongoing FC projects by developing and implementing customised impact evaluation designs.
    • We answer questions that are of particular relevance to FC.
    • We use modern methods of rigorous impact evaluation (RIE) and use and adapt a design from the RIE toolbox that is appropriate for the respective project (form follows function).
    • We seek to collect and use data in innovative ways, especially satellite data.
    • We cooperate with suitable external partners on a case-by-case basis, especially research institutions and other development banks.

    Institutional learning

    • We are guided by the interests and learning objectives of our target groups and provide up-to-date information in modern formats.
    • We offer topical learning formats on various topics, organise training on evaluation methods and contribute our knowledge to peer discussions and sector retreats.
    • Our colleagues in operations actively carry out ex-post evaluations together with us (secondment).
    • We report on new results via newsletters and publication series.
    • We provide the content of all ex-post evaluations since 2007 in digital and interactive form within our IDEaL-App (Interactive Database Evaluation and Learning).

    More information on the three pillars

    Ex-post evaluations

    Find out more about the evaluation methodology and success rates here.

    Methodology and success details

    KfW Development Impact Lab

    Rigorous impact evaluations and analyses supplement the results from the ex-post evaluations.

    What are rigourous impact evaluations?

    Institutional learning

    One size does not fit all. How systematic learning is promoted and used.

    Learn more from evaluations