News from 2015-03-16 / KfW Development Bank
Bringing together a multitude of evaluation experts
KfW, the World Bank and AFD evaluate projects together
The meeting is an unusual one – held in the large meeting room used by the Palestinian "Municipal Development and Lending Fund" (MDLF) in Ramallah. All of the chairs are occupied, and a babble of voices fills the room. The languages being spoken include Arabic, English, German and French. Participants are intensively exchanging their ideas and thoughts – because they all have the same job. They are evaluation experts from KfW, the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD) who have joined forces to together evaluate the MDLF's work in Palestine – which is something of a novelty in the field of project evaluation.
KfW has been promoting the MDLF for eight years. In the Palestinian territories, the fund provides assistance with a multitude of municipal projects aimed at building schools and streets, laying water pipes, collecting rubbish and equipping parks and playgrounds, to name but a few examples. So, you could say that the projects cover a wide range of sectors. "We consequently suggested setting up cooperation with the other two institutions, so as to shed light on as many aspects of MDLF's work as possible," explains Christian Schönhofen, an evaluation expert at KfW. In this regard, the institutions also have to check how intensively the population is involved in the planning process and how transparently the funds are being used.
Major safety precautions taken in the Gaza Strip
KfW, the World Bank and AFD each brought their own special capabilities to the evaluation process and went to work assessing these different aspects of MDLF's work. The experts from the World Bank visited the Gaza Strip under strict security conditions to examine projects taking place there. Their French counterparts, meanwhile, created case studies about several municipalities in the West Bank. KfW brought experts from the University of Göttingen on board to create a study on citizens' level of satisfaction with the MDLF's work.
The work in the crisis region was not always easy and brought with it a number of challenges. "The multitude of barriers, checkpoints and walls made the trip difficult. We often had to change and adapt our visit programme," affirmed Mr Schönhofen. But the experts from the institutions involved managed to question a large number of citizens and compile a wealth of information and findings.
The results of the evaluation trip were then discussed in Frankfurt. The experts sorted the impressions they had gathered in Palestine and made their initial assessments. Experts from Paris and Washington were linked in by telephone. The discussion held was a very intense one. All the experts involved came to the conclusion that many citizens valued the MDLF's and the municipalities' work and stated that they were "more satisfied" than they had been a few years ago when previous appraisals took place. But the experts recognised that there are still major challenges in the Palestinian territories. In a strained political and economic environment, the municipalities have the difficult task of making their services even better for their citizens.
Further information
