Vision and mission

    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 unit that uses renowned and state-of-the-art methods in three pillars of evaluation work:

    1. 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 EPEs ourselves and work together with external experts and delegates from the operational units of FC.
    • EPEs 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 assess project success using the OECD-DAC criteria.
    • EPEs are the main pillar of our evaluation work.

    2. Impact evaluations

    • 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.

    3. 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, organise training on evaluation methods and contribute our knowledge to peer discussions and sector retreats.
    • Our colleagues in operations actively carry out EPEs together with us.
    • 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 an app (QUER – QUick Evaluation Results).

    Evaluations worldwide

    To the world map

    Evaluation report 2019/20

    To the starting page