Fabrizio Felloni bids farewell to IOE

Fabrizio Felloni bids farewell to IOE

The contribution of Fabrizo Felloni to the development and establishment of IOE cannot be overstated. Over twenty years of honoured service, an entire lifetime working for IOE. One might go as far as to say that Fabrizio was one of the founding pillars of the Office. From intern to Deputy Director, Fabrizio’s rise through the ranks was nothing short of exemplary, as exemplary were his professionalism, his dedication and commitment. Fabrizio always led by example, holding himself accountable to the highest standards. He is an evaluator to the core, rigorous about methodological enquiry and passionate about field work.

Stemming from the above, it should come as little surprise that Fabrizio was a highly sought after professional. And so it was that, in August 2024, Fabrizio Felloni bid farewell to his IOE family and set sail for Washington DC, where we would settle into his new role as Deputy Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the Global Environmental Fund. Prior to letting him go, IOE organized a touching send off celebration to salute its ‘prodigal son’. Distinguished representatives of IFAD’s Executive Board and members of senior Management were in attendance, alongside all IOE staff.

In the margins of the event, Independent Magazine found a quiet moment to sit down with Fabrizio, to capture some final insights.

Thank you for taking the time to share a few last thoughts, Fabrizio.

My pleasure, Alexander

How many years have you served with IOE, and where are you going next?

I have served IOE and IFAD for a bit more than twenty-two years; continuously in the past fourteen years, after I came back from UNDP, where I spent about three years. Interestingly, my first collaboration with IFAD was an ‘internship’ that started in early November 1996, soon after my Italian University graduation. At that time, the internship programme did not exist at IFAD. I was the guinea pig of a pilot experience arranged between the inter-

national relations office of Bocconi University and a former IFAD staff member, Mr Mattia Prayer-Galletti, who retired two years ago. A small anecdote here: I was competing for the internship with other Bocconi students. Reportedly, I was selected because I had French as a foreign language, in addition to English, and because I had worked on a thesis on food crises in Northern Italy in the period of 1780-1850s, with several months of work done in state historical archives and parish archives. In that case, history won over analysis of currency exchange rates! In my early years at IOE, I worked on household surveys and econometric analysis but my earlier work was on economic and demographic history.

I will move to the Independent Evaluation Office of the Global Environment Facility, under the World Bank. Still in evaluation but with a different mandate and more focus on environment, natural resources and climate change. My functions will be similar but the ‘evaluandum’, and so will the city, colleagues, working culture. A new adventure which I think I deserve.

What do you feel most proud of during your time with IOE?

I would start with a disclaimer: whatever we have achieved has been the fruit of collective effort, passion and energy. My supervisors, IOE colleagues, IFAD managers and staff have provided collaboration, constructive critique, piloting, feedback.

Together, we have created a tradition on how to evaluate projects, strategies, corporate processes in a way that is principled, logically rigorous, based on evidence and observations and intensive field work, yet oriented to generating solutions. We have not started from a ‘tabula rasa’ but stepped forward along the furrow traced by our predecessors. Here I would like to mention the previous directors of IOE, Pierre Spitz, Luciano, Lavizzari, Oscar Garcia and my two previous supervisors, Per Eklund and Ashwani Muthoo. Our current director, Indran Naidoo has paid tribute to their legacy and further built and improved upon a solid base.

We have designed a process for evaluation that protects independence but is open to interactions with the stakeholders and, hopefully, not too intimidating. I hope that this tradition, and the attention to evidence and the field will continue but I am also cognizant that ‘traditions’ remain alive through continuous adaptation and, when it is needed, some points of discontinuity. The several versions of the evaluation Manual produced, in 2009, 2015 and lately in 2022 (this time in collaboration with Management) are imbued with our practical experience on the ground and have kept growing.

A challenging moment but also a moment of personal growth was in 2020, where we had to weather the COVID-19 crisis but also address a moment of acute tension with Management. I found myself as Officer in Charge, at the helm of IOE during these storms: it was no ‘ordinary administration’.

During the first months of the COVID crisis, several evaluation offices of other international organizations (and here, Alexander, as we say in Italian, I will name the sin but not the numerous sinners) started producing blogs and brochures preaching on how one should conduct evaluations under COVID). I found this both pretentious and totally ridiculous: how can anyone be so prescriptive and self-assertive, when we are all forced to play under new rules of the game and under a sudden change of context? In IOE, we took it with more pragmatism and humility, trying to address case by case. And guess what, IOE managed to complete its full work programme in 2020, while other offices cancelled one third or more of their evaluations. The commitment of our IOE colleagues was extraordinary and nothing less. At the end of the year, we compiled a note on our experience: don’t sell the hide until you have caught the bear (with apologies to the animal lover and conservationist).

But 2020 was also the year when Management and IOE had to prepare together the first shared evaluation policy, covering self- and independent evaluation. I recall that the road was bumpy and not without moments of deep frustration, on both sides. But in the end, it was important to go through this experience because we ended up understanding each other a bit better and respecting each other a bit more. I am grateful to the colleagues who sat in the interdepartmental committee but also to senior managers such as the then President Houngbo and the Head of Programme Management Department, Donal Brown: they acted wisely and responsibly at the key milestones. In the end, relationships between Management and IOE improved, and our current director has further contributed to the positive collaboration spirit.

What has been the biggest challenge that you have overcome whilst working for IOE?

Some challenges are methodological. One has to do with limited evidence on effects that can be directly attributed to the IFAD-funded projects. Sometimes, I find that running an evaluation is a bit like working as an historian and my previous experience in doing research in economic history of pre-industrial Europe has been an important asset. It is like to building a mosaic with many missing tiles. You lack the details but eventually can have a sense of the overall picture. You need to accept structural imperfection. Another methodological challenge is the time framework for an evaluation. Development, especially rural development takes decades, not months, not years. It is often an illusion that we can be transformative with a single project phase. I wish I could come back after five years, every time I conduct an evaluation but this is often not feasible.

Finally, as evaluators, we get to know a lot about a project or a programme. But soon after that, we have to wrap up our work and someone else, the country director, will have to take over the task of implementing the recommendations. And the country director will not be able to move freely, having to listen to the directives of IFAD senior management, the government and other partners. So, the degrees of freedom keep reducing. Besides, we sometime find highly motivated IFAD colleague that are inspired and inspiring and use our evaluations to try to genuinely improve the programme. Sometimes we do not find the same level of enthusiasm either on IFAD’s or the government’s side and it can be frustrating. But these are the rules of the game, which we have to accept.

What will you miss the most about IOE?

The level of dedication and commitment of my colleagues is truly exceptional and the team spirit is amazing. Our work programme is well structured and planned. Since the governing bodies and IFAD Management are so precise and demanding in scheduling official presentation of key evaluations, that gives discipline (and some headaches here and there) to IOE as well. Having expressed gratitude to my former supervisors and directors, I am particularly ‘indebted’ to Director Naidoo; I am not sure I will manage to ‘pay back’ for the support and confidence he has bestowed upon me.

Looking forward, what is the most significant lesson that you have learned or skill that you have acquired with IOE that you think will help you to make a difference in your future endeavours?

In the future, I will need to acquire further skills. I am taking the challenge to move to another organization because I want to learn more Among other things, taking a managerial role at IOE has helped me become a better listener (still imperfect but on an improved and improving path!) and has helped my discernment, my capacity to recognize when I need to be firm and when I can open the door to discussion without compromising integrity, fairness and equity of treatment.

More in general, working with IFAD has taught me the importance of recognizing the work that people are doing, that includes colleagues, IFAD institutional partners and, notably, the end-users of IFAD-funded projects in the field. They are a source of inspiration.

Any final words?

Leaving IFAD after over twenty-two years leaves me with a heavy heart. However, I will not be entirely out of the radar screen. The organization that I will join, the GEF, is a funding agency of IFAD, my new office is a member of several networks to which IOE belongs. I am sure that many colleagues and managers of IFAD will visit Washington DC with some regularity. Looking forward to staying in touch!

Thank you very much, Fabrizio.

You’re most welcome, Alexander