The Office of Evaluation (OE) of IFAD and the Operations Evaluation Department (OPEV) of the AfDB are undertaking a joint evaluation of their policies and operations in agriculture and rural development (ARD) in Africa.

The main strategic goal of the Joint Evaluation (JE) is to contribute towards enhancing the relevance of AfDB and IFAD operations in Agriculture and Rural Development in Africa and to improve their operational performance. There are four objectives:

1. To determine the relevance of IFAD and AfDB policies and operations in agriculture and rural development (ARD) in Africa, in light of current and emerging issues affecting ARD in the continent;
2. To assess the performance and impact of AfDB and IFAD policies and operations in ARD in Africa;
3. To evaluate the strategic partnerships of IFAD and AfDB, not only between the two organisations but also with other prominent ARD actors in the continent; and
4. To understand the proximate causes of AfDB and IFAD relevance and performance in ARD, and develop recommendations to enhance their development effectiveness, including partnerships between them and with others.

The evaluation will assess the two organisations' future relevance in line with their relative and absolute comparative advantage as ARD aid agencies in Africa, and identify ways in which their policies, business processes and partnerships in ARD could be strengthened to meet new challenges. Thus the JE is not confined to an examination of past practice only; it also looks at current practice - particularly the extent to which it reflects recent organisational reforms and lesson-learning - and considers options for the future, including a reward or deepened partnership between the two institutions.