Independent Magazine - Issue n.4, 2022

Once an evaluator, always an evaluator

T he once Deputy Director of IOE, Ashwani Kaul Muthoo, came full circle when he became the first Director General (DG) of the Independent Evaluation Office of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), only a few months ago. Amidst these roles, a professional timeline that runs 30-years deep into global policies, country strategies, development projects and programmes.

Former Director of the Quality Assurance Group in the Office of the President and Vice President of IFAD, Ashwani’s evaluation expertise and knowledge of the agricultural and rural sectors lies deeply rooted in experiences covering more than 50 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Near East and North Africa regions. Over the years, South- South and Triangular Cooperation work have played a major part in Ashwani’s IFAD portfolio, especially in his roles as Director of the Global Engagement and Multilateral Relations Division, and as Director of the Global Engagement, Knowledge and Strategy Division.

On the eve of Ashwani’s departure from the Fund, Independent Magazine had the privilege to catch a glimpse of the soon-to-be NDB Evaluation DG’s perspectives.

Good morning, Ashwani.Good morning, Alexander.

Could you tell us about your professional experiences in dealing with evaluations?

I started in IFAD’s evaluation office in 1990, and stayed until 2015. During those twenty-five years, I was involved in and spearheaded some significant and transformational evaluations that led to far-reaching reforms in IFAD. The first was in 2005, when I carried out a corporate level evaluation of the ‘direct supervision pilot programme’. Before that pilot, IFAD would entrust supervision of its projects and programmes to third parties, like international financial institutions, as well the UN office of project services. In that evaluation, we found that IFAD-led supervision was more effective compared to that performed by third parties. That evaluation laid the basis for IFAD’s first direct supervision policy. Another very important evaluation was the ‘field presence pilot programme’, in 2007. Again, we concluded that having permanent presence in partner countries where we have operations leads to better results and sustainably of IFAD-funded programmes. I would like to single these out because I believe that they form the basis for IFAD’s recent decentralization. Equally important was the evaluation of IFAD’s first private sector strategy, in 2010. It was in that evaluation that we said that the IFAD should start doing non-sovereign operations, which it commenced over the last year. This means providing resources directly to private sector entities in developing countries, without sovereign guarantees.

In your opinion, is it important to have independent evaluation for IFAD to course correct and, if so, why?

In today’s context, I think that independent evaluation is more important than ever. IFAD has developed a self-evaluation system, over the years. This is fine, but self-evaluation involves people who are associated with design and implementation of operations. While I fully respect the professionality and capabilities of my colleagues who are doing those self-evaluations, there might be an element of bias. Thus, independent evaluation brings in that perspective, that distance, which strengthens the credibility of IFAD’s overarching evaluation architecture. Independent evaluation has no stakes in what it looks at. The idea is to use robust methodologies to get accurate perspectives of what is happening on the ground in terms of results and lessons. A fundamental part of all this is to feed the findings back into the design of country strategies, projects and programmes. The two really have to go hand in hand. Self-evaluations are necessary, including since independent evaluation cannot cover the whole portfolio and do not normally intervene during implementation. This combination of independent and self-evaluation gives credibility to the organization as a whole, showing that IFAD takes accountability and learning very seriously.

What you see as being the main opportunities for evaluation to further permeate an evidence-based learning culture across IFAD?

First of all, IFAD is an organization that has put in place a lot of reforms in the last few years. The private sector non-sovereign operations are one example. There are a lot of transformations in IFAD’s business model as well as in its thematic priorities, such as greater attention to non-lending activities, including country-level policy dialogue. Against this backdrop, I think independent evaluation has a great opportunity to come in at the right time to assess the performance of these new initiatives and identify adjustments that can be made to further strengthen results on the ground. We need to understand value for money, and having a strong IOE will allow us the opportunity to leverage the methodology and expertise to credibly report on performance and make the adjustments that need to be made moving forward.

Are there any final thoughts that you would like to contribute?

Having been on both sides of the institution in IFAD, management and independent evaluation, I can give credit to the whole organization for building an evaluation culture, a culture of results orientation, a culture of learning, and a culture of improvement. There is still further scope for the growth on this front. The exchange of personnel between management and IOE represents a great opportunity in this regard. In my case, after leaving IOE, I always leveraged the work of the Office, and instilled that kind of culture within my team, ensuring that there is attention to IOE’s lessons and to how they are being integrated in IFAD operations. This cross-fertilization is essential, and could be encouraged even further. Looking ahead, I think that with Indran, the new Director, IOE has the required visionary leadership to take things to the next level. I really want to commend the whole of IOE for the excellent work delivered and for the future and look forward to engaging with the team in my new role.