Learning Lessons in ADB: Strategic Framework, 2007-2009

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Preface

Introduction

Knowledge Management in ADB

Learning Lessons

Facilitating Lesson Learning

Options for Lesson Learning

Auditing the Lessons Architecture

Business Planning

Putting it all together: The Strategic Framework

Learning Lessons

Value of Evaluations

OED conducts evaluations to find out what results are being achieved, what improvements should be considered, and what is being learned.⁸ It does so with systematic and impartial assessment of policies, strategies, programs, and projects, including their design, implementation, and results.⁹ Producing credible, timely, and objective data, information, and knowledge that describe ADB's organizational performance promotes development impact if what is learned informs decision making. Sharing lessons also demonstrates good governance and advances understanding of what ADB aims to accomplish, thereby generating support for it.^10,11 Figure 1 illustrates the principal audiences for evaluations.

Typology of Lessons

Lessons are of two types: operational and developmental. Operational lessons have a managerial and administrative component offering ideas for the establishment of an environment enabling identification and ownership of good practices. They relate, among others, to performance measurement, aid coordination, resource requirements, team building and coordination, procurement practices, delivery and reporting systems, and logistics. Developmental lessons pertain to realization of development results, improvement of developmental practice, and delivery on priorities.

Informing Practice

Evaluation reports that are placed on a shelf provide no return on investment. The highest value can be realized only when what is learned from evaluation impacts decision making and improves practice relevantly, effectively, efficiently, and sustainably. Specifically, what key audiences, both inside ADB and outside it, can gain from lessons creates opportunities to

identify shortcomings in policies, strategies, programs, projects, and associated processes, methods, and techniques;
set out remedial courses of action to address issues and problems;
increase institutional learning that builds capacity to manage for development results and development effectiveness; and
inform key audiences about how ADB is performing.

Building Value

Each benefit from evaluation is defined by what value the evaluation offers, the strategies developed for sharing results, and the manner in which the results are used. Building value means staying committed and focused. Throughout the evaluation process, it is essential to think about the potential for improving developmental practice. Evaluation is both an opportunity to contribute to the improvement of development activities and a process to forge findings and recommendations. Evaluation results should

improve developmental practice,
enhance institutional learning,
validate hypotheses, and
facilitate identification of issues and resolution of problems.

To accomplish this, it is necessary to think of the broader picture, focus on results, maintain flexibility, keep messages clear and simple, and disseminate them in timely fashion and the right format with appropriate dissemination techniques.

Reaching Out

Sharing results provides the chance to improve developmental practice and the organizational performance associated with it. It can also build meaning and understanding, develop support, and generate learning opportunities. However, it is conditioned by a conscious strategy to get the right knowledge to the right people at the right time, and helping them (with incentives) to apply it in ways that strive to improve organizational performance. If results are shared in this manner, credibility is enhanced and pressure is generated to act on the findings and recommendations.

The necessity to reach out is compelling organizations to ask "What are the key audiences?¹² Who needs to know what? How can individual target audiences be reached? What should be emphasized?" Answering these questions requires a deliberate, planned, and sustained approach to

articulate a dissemination policy;
elaborate a dissemination plan specifying impact and outcomes, users, information content, medium, execution, roadblocks, and accomplishment;
develop a dissemination strategy specifying users, source, information content, context, and medium; and
utilize dissemination tactics.

Box 2 catalogs the attributes of good dissemination.

Examples of dissemination techniques include

oral briefings,
the corporate memory system, and
electronic lessons databases.

Other examples include

bilingual summaries on ADB's website and email (electronic mail) announcements;
articles in internal newsletters and bulletins;
conferences, seminars, and peer review sessions;
press releases and question-and-answer statements;
references in speeches; and
articles in professional journals.

Caveat

Development agencies now place a greater priority on improving practice by sharing results more purposively. Benefits are far from proven, and internal and external result-sharing activities are affected by assessment problems. There is no single best practice and approaches need to be context specific. There is a logic to developing result-sharing activities, and many of these will in the first instance be—inevitably and rightly—internally oriented. Ultimately, however, sharing results in a market crowded with data and information will be seen as a luxury if it does not visibly and genuinely address challenges in DMCs.

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⁸ The types of evaluation reports include project/program performance evaluation reports, special evaluation studies, sector assistance program evaluations, country assistance program evaluations, annual evaluation reports, and impact evaluation studies.
⁹ Evaluations can be formative or summative. Formative evaluations are undertaken early to understand what is being achieved and identify how that can be improved. Summative evaluations are conducted during implementation or ex-post to assess effectiveness and determine results and overall value. Evaluations can be categorized by focus or in terms of the stage in the life cycle of the operation being evaluated.
¹⁰ 2006. Operations Evaluation Department: Knowledge Management Team—Proposed Work Plan, 2006. ADB, Manila.
¹¹ 2006. Establishment of a Knowledge Management Unit in OED. ADB, Manila.
¹² Audiences for evaluation products and services are both inside and outside ADB. They include the Board of Directors; Management; senior staff; staff in headquarters, resident missions, and representative offices; institutional responsibility centers in developing member countries; local stakeholders; nongovernment organizations; other development agencies; and umbrella organizations such as the Development Cooperation Directorate in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Evaluation Network that it coordinates, the United Nations Evaluation Group, and the Evaluation Cooperation Group.

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Knowledge Management in ADB

Facilitating Lesson Learning

Evaluation

Table of Contents p. 4 of 9 BACK | NEXT Preface Introduction Knowledge Management in ADB Learning Lessons Facilitating Lesson Learning Options for Lesson Learning Auditing the Lessons Architecture Business Planning Putting it all together: The Strategic Framework