The ‘EBRD Ukraine Stabilisation and Sustainable Growth Multi-Donor Account’ (Ukraine MDA) was launched in 2014 as part of a multilateral crisis-response measures to provide urgent support to Ukraine in the wake of major political, security, economic and humanitarian crises.
A total of fourteen donors have contributed €53.5 million to the Ukraine MDA, out of which a portfolio of 38 projects have so far been or are being delivered, with a total earmarked value of €36.9 million. The Fund is managed by the EBRD and is the only such single-country focused arrangement in the Bank.
Bank’s independent Evaluation Department (EvD) was asked by EBRD management and the MDA donors to produce an interim evaluation on an accelerated basis in order to inform discussion and decisions about Fund’s effectiveness and potential extension ahead of its current July 2020 closure date.
The evaluation provides an assessment of: MDA relevance and effectiveness as a crisis response mechanism; its governance principles; the efficiency and effectiveness of its activities and sustainability of its results; and, any impact it has on the Ukrainian investment climate and economic growth, where possible to assess. The evaluation covers nine completed projects and 27 ongoing projects spanning 2014 to mid-2019.
In the autumn of 2008, the EBRD announced an initiative called the "Crisis Response" as part of a number of actions taken by the G-20 governments and international financial institutions to changed market conditions after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in the US. This study, carried out by the Bank’s independent Evaluation Department, focuses on the crisis response from an EBRD perspective and is grounded in the EBRD's unique mandate and instruments. The study makes observations and offers recommendations on possible adjustments to the Bank's future activities in the light of the study's findings.
EBRD has been implementing the Green Cities Programme (GrCP) since 2016 to promote urban solutions that reduce negative environmental changes and to scale up Green Economy Transition investments. Under the GrCP, municipal stakeholders are supported in the preparation of the Green City Action Plan, bringing together policy, regulatory, and investment priorities, which later on inform investment decisions of the EBRD and other financiers. EBRD has concentrated investments in the GrCP under the Green Cities Frameworks, which were approved by the Board in 2016 and 2018, and then extended in 2020 and 2021.
This report presents the results of the interim evaluation of the first five years of GrCP implementation (2016-2021), analyzing the extent to which the programme has been able to function as a catalyst for municipal solutions to mitigate or adapt to climate change
The EBRD has used Nominee directors (NDs) since its inception: as a key element of its direct equity investments, as an instrument of transition impact, and to represent EBRD’s interests as a minority shareholder. This study is EvD’s first review of the Nominee Director programme for direct equity investments. The study used an extensive EBRD document and wider literature review, and prepared 14 case studies representing multiple sectors and company types. EvD interviewed operation leaders and NDs in each of the case studies, along with a wide range of staff across the Bank, including from Economics Policy and Governance Group, Legal Transition Team, Office of the Chief Compliance Officer and Equity Portfolio Monitoring Unit. EvD also surveyed current NDs and EBRD operations staff managing direct equity investments with ND roles.
This evaluation focuses on the Bank’s equity portfolio approach and developments between 2005 and 2016. It identifies significant and difficult issues regarding performance and approach and, on the basis of these findings, makes several recommendations for consideration by the Board and Management.
The EBRD’s operational engagement in healthcare equipment and services was minimal for most of its first two decades. After extensive internal debate, the EBRD introduced an Updated Approach (UA) in 2014 for engagement in specific areas of healthcare services. This evaluation is a first focussed EvD effort to assess activities under the UA. This evaluation covers both investment and non-investment activities approved between 2008 and 2018, whose use of proceeds and/or transition ambition directly affected the Healthcare Sector; it is not limited to operations covered by the UA.
Learning and Knowledge Management (LKM) at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is a thematic evaluation included in the Evaluation department’s (EvD’s) 2020 work programme following a recommendation of the 2019 independent external evaluation of the EBRD’s evaluation system (the Kirk Report).
Although this study stems from a recommendation directed at learning from evaluation, it takes a broader perspective on the way the EBRD learns as an organisation and what place knowledge has among its operational assets.
The scope of the evaluation covers organisational learning (which includes experiential learning) and the knowledge management (KM) processes that contribute to it. Both explicit and tacit knowledge are considered. The evaluation does not look into the EBRD’s role as a source of knowledge for clients or external stakeholders – a separate paper on this topic may be prepared at a later date.
This is the first EvD evaluation to offer a comprehensive analysis of key building blocks enabling the EBRD to be a knowledge and learning organisation.
This report consists of several distinct parts targeted at different audiences with differing interests. A summary report presents key conclusions and actionable recommendations of the LKM evaluation, with the primary focus on the Bank’s decision makers. Six technical papers (“TPs”) present in-depth analysis of the evidence and offer conclusions along the main building blocks of the LKM system.
This evaluation is focused specifically on the Bank’s local capital markets development work under the local currency strategy. It does not assess the substantial amount of work focused on Llocal currency activities, though in many cases this may have had secondary local capital markets dimensions. It confirms that considerable effort and skill has gone into delivering specific transactions and technical cooperation projects (TCs) in challenging contexts, resulting in discrete accomplishments in numerous cases. The commitment to a higher institutional profile and priority at the level of sector and country strategy and operations laid out in the Strategy depends on the content of new-format country strategies and is not yet observable. Solid evidence of wider contributions to local capital markets is limited.
A first independent review of the Bank’s evaluation systems completed in 2019 (the Kirk Report) covered both the overall structure of the Bank’s systems as well as key specific components, asking the core question of the degree to which intended operational results can be reliably and credibly verified. It raised additional specific concerns about the evaluability of the “Transition Qualities” at the heart of the Bank’s new approach, and recommended that the independent Evaluation Department (EvD) complete “a brief assessment of the evaluability of the transition qualities as concepts and operational tools.” This paper is EvD’s response.
This paper provides EvD’s initial contribution to the Management review as directed by a first-ever “Independent External Evaluation of EBRD's Evaluation System” (Kirk Report). It consolidates analysis, findings and recommendations that EvD has largely provided in other contexts and that are directly relevant to the Kirk findings and Management’s work ahead. The objective is to contribute in an advisory capacity to a wider Management-led process in which EvD will also be systematically engaged. It also seeks to inform the Board and assist it to provide effective guidance for further system development. Overall, however, the findings and insights that are already available – from the Kirk Report, from the accumulated work of EvD, and from relevant experience across the IFI system -- provide a high-value basis on which Management can proceed.
Mobilisation of incremental private sector finance by the multilateral development institutions has always been formally at the core of their public purpose. In some it is explicitly established as a central objective; EBRD’s Articles specifically do so, as do the founding Articles of the World Bank, IFC and other comparator institutions.
The study seeks to contribute to Board and Management understanding, strategic thinking and operational decision-making about the Bank’s role in mobilising additional private capital to support transition. Organisationally it begins by providing essential factual background, including details on the instruments used, and current MDB strategies, practice and outcomes; key findings of existing performance assessments and evaluations. The bulk of the paper then looks closely at mobilisation practices and issues specific to EBRD and its performance.
The EBRD’s ability to combine non-sovereign investment and policy engagement was an important contributor to shareholders’ decision to offer membership to countries of the South-east Mediterranean and North Africa region (known as the SEMED region in EBRD) following the major political upheavals of 2011. EBRD’s experience with policy engagement work in these new and challenging member countries led to an opportunity for a provisional assessment of achievements. This evaluation reviews the content, objectives and, to the extent possible, performance of the Bank’s policy engagement in SEMED between 2011 and 2018. It looks at how the EBRD implemented the 2015 Enhanced and Structured Approach to Policy Dialogue in the SEMED region. The study provides findings for future policy work in SEMED, and potential new countries of operations.
Case studies:
This report presents an evaluation of nine infrastructure projects promoting cross-border connectivity, eight in transport and one in energy. It assesses their overall performance, but gives particular emphasis to their intended and observable impact on cross-border connectivity and integration.
The evaluation seeks to establish a broader context for its project-specific work - starting with a brief analysis of the evolution of the Bank’s approach to regional integration, a review of the portfolio of early cross-border projects, as well as of more recent operations after “Integrated” became one of the six transition qualities. The linkages and incorporation of regional integration into selected country and sector strategies are examined, along with how other IFIs approach regional integration and how EBRD collaborates with them.
In the EBRD’s 25th anniversary year, with a new strategic and capital framework for 2016 to 2020 in place and an operational effectiveness and efficiency initiative underway it is timely for the Bank to take stock of its field presence system. This evaluation identifies major challenges and opportunities for the Bank. Recommendations from this study suggest a new way forward for the resident office system.
EvD completed a review of evaluation material available from other organisations to assess the state of analysis and to extract findings that might be immediately useful to the EBRD.
After an initial review of 281 publically available documents, this paper reviews a total of 28 evaluations found to contain relevant and useful material and summarises their main insights and findings. Most are drawn from evaluations of private sector related operations completed between 2000 and 2014.
The EBRD has long conducted transactions with state-owned enterprises to encourage reform and transition, through a blend of finance and analytical and advisory work. This evaluation examines EBRD transactions with these enterprises in the power and energy and transport sectors over the period from 2000 to 2013, exploring questions about project rationale, progress towards privatisation and commercialisation, sectoral impact and potential marketplace distortion.
Following approval of Strategic and Capital Framework SCF 2021-2025 (SCF2), the Board of Directors asked Evaluation Department to review previous Strategy Implementation Plans (SIPs) to provide findings and lessons on early experiences that could usefully inform the ongoing SIP process and content with a view to improving the operationalisation of the SCF.
This study aims to provide the Board with findings and lessons on the design and the content of the SIP; it is intended as a discussion paper rather than a full formal evaluation for several reasons. These include ongoing changes in key elements of the Bank’s strategic architecture, the fact that SCF2, and its first SIP, depart sharply from SCF1 and its SIPs, and the unusual circumstances due to the Covid-19 crisis.
The EBRD’s use of subsidies in projects has increased substantially over the past decade, on par with the overall increase of Bank business volume. Key drivers of growth include the financial crisis and the Bank’s expansion into new areas including climate change, clean energy and resource efficiency. The role of subsidies is likely to increase further under the Bank’s current strategic direction. Phase 1 of this EvD study maps subsidies approved between 2010 to 2014 by type, sector, geography and donor, and their consistency with Bank policies.
Bank projects often target transition impact by extending markets through direct or or indirect positive effects on supply chains and backward linkages. This study examines projects where this has been a key objective, assessing how efforts are integrated into project design and the results of this work. Several recommendations to strengthen the Bank's approach and activities in this area are made.
The EBRD Shareholder Special Fund (SSF) was established in 2008 so the Bank could respond more effectively to the remaining transition challenges in its region of operations by providing essential grant resources – technical cooperation and co-investment grants – to support the Bank’s operations and policy dialogue. Since its inception, more than €1.1 billion of the Bank’s net income allocation has been channelled through the SSF, supporting upwards of 2,200 TC and co-investment grant projects throughout the EBRD regions. In parallel to backing the Bank’s transition agenda, the SSF has also become an integral part of its crisis response toolbox. The last full evaluation of the SSF took place in 2014. This latest evaluation offers an independent, comprehensive up-to-date assessment of the Fund. It looked principally at the period January 2016 to December 2020, though it also considered changes in and performance of the SSF since, where relevant.
The Bank’s engagement in the West Bank & Gaza (WB&G) has to be assessed five years following its approval by the EBRD Board of Governors. This evaluation was performed in a short timeframe to deliver findings and recommendations on time for Management’s next Net Income Allocation request and to inform the strategic engagement update in the WB&G that Management is undertaking.
EBRD has engaged in activities in the WB&G under three strategic themes aimed at: (1) enhancing private sector led growth through direct support for competitiveness and innovation, (2) strengthening the capacity of financial intermediaries with a particular focus on increasing access to finance for MSMEs and (3) fostering energy efficiency and sustainability.
The questions posed by the evaluation team on EBRD’s investments activities in the WB&G are based on four evaluation criteria and grouped under the four headings:
I. Relevance: To what extent have EBRD’s activities in the WB&G been responsive to the needs of the private sector in the region, donors and the WB&G authorities?
II. Internal and External coherence: How coherent have the Bank’s activities in the WB&G been internally and externally?
III. Effectiveness: What are the early results achieved by the Bank in the region; and to what extent Bank’s projects have achieved, or are positioned to achieve, their intended objectives?IV. Efficiency: Have EBRD’s resourcing and management supported efficiently the achievement of its intended results?
