UN agency launches first-ever joint evaluation project with African Development Bank

The United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has announced that that it will conduct a joint evaluation of policies and operations in Africa with the continent’s major development bank.

Set to begin this month, the project, which will assess the operations of both groups between 1996 and 2005, will solicit feedback from a range of concerned officials and affected people, from African governments to the rural poor.

IFAD President Lennart Båge acknowledged that his agency and the African Development Bank “share the need to understand better what works in fighting rural poverty and what doesn’t.”

Despite some successes, Africa remains the only region where agricultural productivity has fallen in the last two decades. Small-scale farmers, particularly African women, have limited access to markets.

This assessment, which is the first of its kind for both bodies, aims to utilize its findings to improve not only existing policies and programmes, but evaluation practices as well.

“The evaluation will help both institutions to internalize knowledge and build upon it, as well as to disseminate it to other rural development partners,” said Bank President Donald Kaberuka.

The Rome-based agency and the Bank have been cooperating on rural development initiatives since 1978.