Skip to content

Driving Development Impact

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the New Development Bank conducts evaluations to improve the NDB’s development effectiveness and to further the achievement of the Bank’s mandate. Independent evaluation plays a central role to drive quality and development impact of the Bank.

The IEO is responsible for independently evaluating the Bank’s policies, strategies, processes, initiatives and operations. The IEO will also contribute and provide oversight to improve the effectiveness of the Bank’s quality assurance and self-evaluation activities.

The IEO is independent of the Management of the NDB and reports directly and exclusively to the Board of Directors.

The evaluation function is intended to play a central role in improving NDB strategies, policies, instruments, processes and operations, with the aim of identifying lessons and providing recommendations for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Bank.

The IEO’s aim is also to inform the Board of Directors and Management of the results achieved by the Bank in order to enhance the accountability of the organization and ultimately to strengthen and drive the quality of the Bank’s interventions in delivering results in its member countries.

To support NDB in achieving greater development effectiveness, the evaluation function has two core objectives:

  • Promote accountability by providing an evidence-based assessment of results achieved through NDB’s financial and other support to member countries;
  • Contribute to enhanced learning and feedback to improve the quality of current and future policies, strategies, programs, projects, instruments, underlying processes, organization, resources, and capacities required to achieve these results.

These objectives will also serve to promote a development results, learning and evaluation culture across the Bank to encourage a continuous improvement in the quality of NDB activities.

DOWNLOAD: About IEO

The Director General of the IEO has the authority to issue and submit final evaluation reports and related products to the Board of Directors and subsequently publish them, without prior clearance from anyone outside the IEO.

The Director General of IEO shall be responsible for the preparation of the IEO annual work programme. The work programme will take into account institutional priorities of the NDB and its member countries and be prepared through a consultative process engaging with key stakeholders, in particular with the Board officials and NDB Management. The IEO’s work programme and budget will be approved by the Board and made available public.

In December 2022, the NDB Board of Directors (BOD) approved the establishment of the High-Level Evaluation Advisory Committee (EAC) to provide periodic strategic advice to the Director General of IEO on evaluation strategy, priorities, methodology and related topics. Members of the EAC were appointed by the NDB Board of Directors in April 2023.

NDB Evaluation Policy

On 24 August 2022, the NDB Board of Directors approved the Bank’s first Evaluation Policy. This policy sets out the overarching framework for conduct of evaluations in NDB. The Policy focus on strategic issues and clearly defines roles and responsibilities across the various components of the evaluation system ensuring complementarity and avoiding overlap and duplication with other entities responsible for oversight in the Bank. The new Policy covers independent evaluations as well as some aspects of self-evaluation.

The evaluation policy is intended to help NDB Management and staff, and partners align their expectations in determining why, when, and how to use evaluation for improved development impact and sustainability.

The policy learns from a benchmarking of the evaluation policies and equivalent documents of selected multilateral development banks (MDBs) and United Nations organizations with respect to the overall coverage of the policies, the roles and responsibilities addressed herein, and the underlying principles. While learning from other MDBs, this policy considers good practices that are most relevant to the unique context of the NDB and its specialized mandate.

Also, the policy is established in the Evaluation at NDB’s core principles: Independence, utility, timeliness and credibility and transparency.

Evaluation Strategy 2024-2026

The NDB Board of Directors approved, on 28 November 2023, the Independent Evaluation Strategy 2024-2026. The Strategy, the first of its kind in the Bank, is part of IEO’s broader enabling environment and aims to operationalize the NDB Evaluation Policy as well as generate a common understanding on the approach to evaluations by IEO. The strategy has four priorities as follows: (i) The strategy has strategic priorities: Strengthen NDB’s developmental impact by evaluating NDB-financed projects and associated activities, deriving lessons, and sharing knowledge; (ii) Support the further development of NDB self-evaluation capacities and systems; (iii) Provide evaluation-based lessons to support the preparation of Bank policies and strategies; and (iv) Promote an evaluation and results culture in the Bank and its member countries.

In conducting its evaluation work, IEO broadly follows the guiding principles and methodologies as adopted by the Evaluation Cooperation Group of the Multilateral Development Bank, while ensuring due customization to the specific context of the New Development Bank.

In collaboration with concerned partner organizations at the global, regional and country levels, IEO contributes to strengthening evaluation capacities and culture within the New Development Bank and its member countries.

The work programme and budget of the Independent Evaluation Office is prepared independently and approved directly by the Bank’s Board of Directors. The activities in the programme are informed by consultations with NDB Management, and feedback from the Board of Directors and partners in member countries.

Ashwani K. Muthoo
Director General of the Independent Evaluation Office
Ashwani K. Muthoo, Indian national, assumed his position as the first Director General of the Independent Evaluation Office.
Henrique Pissaia
Principal Professional Specialist, Independent Evaluation Office

Henrique Pissaia joined IEO in March 2023 as a Principal Professional Specialist in evaluation methods.

Chao Sun
Senior Professional, Independent Evaluation Office

Chao Sun joined IEO in March 2023 as a Senior Professional in evaluation methods.

Manas Puri
Senior Professional, Independent Evaluation Office

Manas Puri, a national of India, joined IEO as a Senior Professional in October 2023.

Jin Zhao
Evaluation Specialist, Independent Evaluation Office

Jin Zhao, a national of China, joined IEO as evaluation specialist in September 2023.

Nidhi Chaudhary
Evaluation Specialist, Independent Evaluation Office

Nidhi Chaudhary, an Indian national, joined the IEO as an Evaluation Specialist in July 2023.

Newsletters

Independent Evaluation Office Update Issue 4
14 Dec 2023
Independent Evaluation Office Update Issue 3
3 Jul 2023
Independent Evaluation Office Update Issue 2
16 Dec 2022
Independent Evaluation Office Update Issue 1
29 Jul 2022

Connect with Us