Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) at the African Development Bank (AfDB or ‘Bank’) is currently conducting an evaluation of the Bank's country strategies and programs in Gabon, covering the period 2011 - 2020. The Bank's assistance during this period was guided by two Country Strategy Papers. The first covers the period 2011-2015 and aims to contribute to improving the competitiveness of factors of production, while the 2016-2020 strategy aims to contribute to the optimal utilization of the country's economic and human development potential. At the regional level, the Bank's strategy in Central Africa presented in the two regional integration strategy documents, which cover the period under review, emphasizes the development of regional infrastructure and capacity building.
The objective of this evaluation is twofold:
- On the one hand, it seeks to draw formative lessons and recommendations from the Bank's experience, particularly in relation to the factors that positively and negatively affect action, in order to guide the Bank's future engagement and improve its subsequent strategies in the country.
- On other hand, it provides a form of accountability to stakeholders by reporting on the performance of the Bank's assistance in Gabon through an analysis of its actions and the achievement of the development results linked to them.
The scope of the evaluation covers a portfolio of 21 national projects totaling UA 924.45 million (including twelve technical assistance projects) and eight multi-country projects (UA 88.7 million) approved between 2011 and 2020, as well as four additional national projects that were approved before 2011 but whose implementation continued during the period under review. In total, the Bank's interventions cover seven sectors: (i) governance; (ii) agriculture; (iii) water and sanitation; (iv) transport; (v) environment; and (vi) social and (vii) communication.
The evaluation will analyze, on the one hand, the Bank’s contribution to Gabon’s development results and, on the other hand, the way the Bank has managed its interventions. It will be based on the reconstruction of the theory of change from the results frameworks of the Bank's interventions in Gabon over the period 2011-2020 and will review the main evaluation criteria such as relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability, as well as questions of coherence, partnership and leverage. The evaluation will follow a pyramid approach. The exercise will start with an in-depth analysis of completed projects, focusing on the priority areas of Bank assistance, to assess the sectoral results that will then feed into the country-level evaluation. It will also cover non-lending activities, including analytical work, policy and portfolio dialogue, aid coordination and harmonization, and cross-cutting aspects such as gender, environment and regional integration.
The team will use both qualitative and quantitative techniques, which will allow triangulation of the data collected in order to verify its validity and avoid bias. Sources of information will include document analysis, individual interviews, focus groups, case studies based on field visits and direct observation, and real-time consultations / questionnaires. The evaluation will take place in four main phases: (i) the start-up phase; (ii) the data collection, processing and analysis phase, (iii) the preparation phase of the sector notes and the technical report of the evaluation, and (iv) the preparation of the summary report.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Gabon CSPE_Rapport de démarrage Final_Mai 2020 - Clean.pdf | 2.06 MB |