Client: Development Bank of Southern Africa
The purpose of this project was to assist the Development Bank of Southern Africa to improve its Development Results Reporting Framework (DRRF) as part of a broader process to strengthen organisationally-appropriate development results planning, monitoring, reporting and evaluation processes and systems for continuous improvement and performance.
The DBSA provides over R15 billion annually in project finance to governments in Southern Africa (national, provincial, and municipal) as well as the private sector in the energy, water, transport, ICT, health, education and ICT sectors. A DRRF benchmarking and diagnostic tool was developed to guide the collection of information via interviews and document analysis in order to identify Development Finance Institution (DFI) good practices from 5 DFIs (Asian Development Bank, The African Development Bank, the Brazilian Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, KfW, and the Global Environment Facility (South Africa)). A benchmarking and gap analysis report was produced containing DBSA DRRF gaps and M&E improvement opportunities, and draft recommendations at various levels including organizational culture, policy, process, system, and capacity and capability levels. We then drafted a DBSA M&E policy document accompanied by a set of guidelines and tools intended to strengthen the Bank’s results framework and M&E systems. A theory of change approach was used to develop the results framework using relevant infrastructure-related output and outcome indicators. Workshops were held with relevant DBSA staff in order to provide an understanding of the results of the benchmarking report and the resultant M&E system and results framework in order to support ongoing learning and change management. A change management and communication strategy was also developed.
The project’s key recommendations included: 1) the strengthening of monitoring practices at the Bank by enhancing client capacity to plan for monitoring activities during project planning; 2) the establishment of a Development Effectiveness Committee; 3) the development of a system to track the implementation of Evaluation Implementation Plans; and 4) the development and implementation of an improved ICT system to improve data quality, governance, and reduce the reporting burden.
