KfW Development Bank has released its 18th Evaluation Report, titled "Evaluate. Measure. Learn". This biennial publication continues a tradition dating back to 1991, focusing on the impacts of financial cooperation (FC) projects and their transparent presentation. The latest report offers insights into project successes and failures, as well as modern approaches to impact measurement.
Christiane Laibach, a member of the Executive Board of KfW Group, stated: "In a time of volatility and geopolitical uncertainty, we are facing major challenges both in Germany and in our partner countries. The federal elections and the recently concluded coalition negotiations have shown that public awareness of development cooperation is greater than ever and its benefits for Germany are under scrutiny. We want to bring facts and good arguments to bear on the increasingly critical public debate on the effectiveness of development cooperation."
The report includes over 100 completed ex-post evaluations from 2023-2024, providing detailed conclusions on FC project success rates. Approximately 85% of these projects are deemed successful, though success rates vary by sector and region.
The "Evaluate" chapter highlights KfW’s Development Impact Lab's work, which manages impact evaluations focusing on causal impacts during project implementation. Jochen Kluve, Head of Evaluation at KfW Development Bank, remarked: "The aim of the Impact Lab is to provide feedback for the operational colleagues during project implementation, to test measures to increase their effectiveness and efficiency, and to measure the impact of a project per euro spent."
The final section addresses institutional learning with an evaluation conducted jointly by Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and KfW Development Bank examining collaboration in development cooperation. It also features an article by Estelle Raimondo from World Bank Evaluation (IEG) discussing artificial intelligence's role in evaluating development cooperation.
Further details can be found in the full report available for download.