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IEU NEWSLETTER, Issue 14

IN THIS ISSUE

  • IEU at B.30
  • Evaluations
  • IEU Team Retreat
  • Communications and Uptake
  • Blog
  • LORTA
  • Multimedia
  • IEU Engagements
  • Coming Up
 Dear friends and colleagues,

In the lead-up to B.30, the IEU kept busy providing the Board with various B.30 outputs. Despite the IEU conducting its operations online for most of 2021, and often in widely different time-zones, the IEU united unlike ever before to deliver on its mandate to provide evidence-based evaluations and discharge the function of accountability and learning. While faced with these challenges, the IEU delivered the key output, the report on the independent evaluation of the GCF’s approach to the private sector, on time for B.30. To ensure early feedback and active engagement and real-time learning, the IEU shared with the Secretariat some early findings and insights from this evaluation by disseminating four LabReports throughout the evaluation cycle and holding webinars. To underscore the learning function of evaluations, the IEU also engaged with various stakeholders on the key findings and recommendations of the private sector evaluation, together with the newly appointed Director of GCF’s PSF, Mr. Henry Gonzalez, in a virtual IEU Board side event, held the week before B.30.

The IEU’s extensive presence in the B.30 provisional agenda and among Secretariat submissions demonstrates the Unit’s proactive pre-meeting engagement with stakeholders within the GCF ecosystem, including the GCF Secretariat and the GCF Board. B.30 was a successful Board meeting for the IEU with important implications for its work going forward. Most importantly, the Board discussed two IEU items at this Board meeting:
  • Rapid assessment of the GCF's Simplified Approval Process (SAP) Pilot Scheme (completed and first submitted in time for B.26).
  • Work programme and budget of the Independent Evaluation Unit for 2022.
The Board approved the IEU’s 2022 work plan and budget, and discussed and took note of the SAP Assessment. The Board also adopted a decision on matters related to the evaluation function, and in this decision, the GCF Board underscored the provisions of the Evaluation Policy of the GCF that evaluation results should feed back into the development, update and design of strategies, policies, and operations thus contributing to enhancing the quality of overall performance of the GCF.  In this context, the Board requested the IEU to prepare a summary of views expressed by Board members on each of the previous evaluations so that these views can be incorporated into future Board discussions and decisions on related policy items.  

In this last IEU newsletter of 2021, we can look back on a successful year. Despite the challenges with the ongoing pandemic and our reduced workforce, we have achieved milestones such as the Board’s approval of the Evaluation Policy for the GCF and the amendment to the Evaluation Policy for the GCF: Updated Terms of Reference of the Independent Evaluation Unit, which describes the mandate given by the Board to the IEU. The IEU has submitted all of its evaluation reports on time, in line with the IEU’s workplan, the independent evaluation of the GCF’s adaptation portfolio and approach, the rapid assessment of the GCF’s request for proposals modality, and the independent evaluation of the GCF's approach to the private sector. We also launched the Second Performance Review of the GCF (SPR), which will assess the progress made by the GCF in delivering on its mandate and the GCF’s performance in promoting the paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate resilient development pathways. This review will inform the process of replenishing the GCF for the next programming period (2024-2027).

In the coming months, the IEU team will be working on the SPR and finalizing the independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the GCF’s investments in the Least Developed Countries. So, watch this space for further updates!
 
Thank you,
Andreas Reumann, Head of the IEU a.i.

IEU at B.30

Co-Chairs' Consultation Session on Evaluations, prior to B.30.

On 22 September, the IEU was invited to a consultation session on evaluations convened by the Co-Chairs. The aim of the session was to discuss the issue of open evaluations and decide which should be considered at B.30. The Board members discussed the need to actively consider findings and recommendations from IEU evaluations, and to incorporate them into the policies and the advice it provides to the Fund overall. The Board members concluded that evaluations ought to be discussed before changes are made to relevant policies. The Board members also emphasized the need to consider a balanced number of evaluations, policy items and other agenda items in the upcoming meetings.
 
IEU Virtual Side Event for B.30

Ahead of B.30, the IEU held a virtual side event on its recently concluded independent evaluation of the GCF's approach to the private sector. Watch the recording here.

It was attended by a wide range of stakeholders, including Secretariat colleagues, Board Members, advisors, AEs and PSOs.
Ahead of B.30, the IEU also submitted its activity report which covers the IEU's key activities for the period of 31 May to 1 September 2021, in line with its Board-approved 2021 work plan.

Additionally, the full report of the independent evaluation of the GCF's approach to the private sector was finalized and submitted in time for B.30.
During B.30, the GCF Board took three decisions related to evaluations. Specifically,  In addition to the above, a number of key findings and recommendations from the IEU evaluations were quoted during B.30.

EVALUATIONS

In recent months, the IEU produced various products related to both on-going and completed evaluations.
For the independent evaluation of the GCF's approach to the private sector, the final report of the evaluation is now available. Read it here. The IEU has planned for several events at the COP26 in Glasgow to disseminate lessons learnt from this and other evaluations.  
For the independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the GCF's investments in the LDCs, an initial factual draft was shared with the Secretariat. On 14 October, the team engaged with the Secretariat in an internal webinar to introduce emerging areas of evidence from this evaluation. The full evaluation report, including all findings and recommendations, will be completed in December 2021 and submitted to the first Board meeting (B.31) in 2022.  

With the aim of improving communication with the GCF’s global stakeholders, the IEU stepped up its efforts to expand the number and range of products available in multiple languages. In addition to translating the evaluations’ summary briefs in Spanish and French, the IEU finalized and published its first Arabic briefs during the last few months. A total of twenty briefs and notes have been made available in Arabic on the IEU website. For instance, we now have a 2-page and 4-page summary of the IEU’s independent evaluation of the GCF’s adaptation portfolio and approach in Arabic.

IEU TEAM RETREAT

 
Work hard, play hard! The IEU held a team retreat from 25 to 27 October, which provided opportunities to think about and discuss ways to improve our teamwork, align tasks across workstreams, foster effective communication, and build resilience and capacity within the IEU. The facilitated retreat allowed the IEU team to come together for 3 days of discussion, teambuilding, Johari windows and silly hats competitions!

COMMUNICATIONS AND UPTAKE

During the summer, the IEU communications workstream took several initiatives to improve the IEU’s digital communications. These included testing the IEU microsite through live user testing with non-IEU audiences, soliciting feedback on the website from the entire IEU team, and analyzing website and social media analytics data. The findings from this analysis were used to inform planned revisions to the IEU microsite and digital communications strategy. To foster internal learning, key takeaways were also shared in the IEU team meeting, leading to an engaging team-wide discussion.

The IEU microsite also saw an uptick in visitors during B.30. The week of B.30 saw the most weekly microsite visitors since May, and 26% more visitors than the same period a month prior. The top 10 most viewed pages during the period included: the private sector evaluation page, the SAP evaluation page, and the Data Outlook blog on B.30 written by IEU intern Mark Hopkins (see below).

BLOG

A sneak peek at GCF’s B.30: Funding proposals, and strategy and policy items for Board discussion
 
How many Board decisions have been made so far during GCF-1? And how many of those were taken during Board meetings, and how many of them adopted as between Board meeting decisions (BBMs)? Find the answer to these and many more in a blog written right before B.30, by IEU's Mark Hopkins. It provides an overview of the funding proposals presented at B.30 for the Board's consideration. Read the blog here!

LORTA

The 2021 LORTA (IEU's Learning-Oriented Real-Time Impact Assessment (LORTA) programme) Virtual Design Workshop kicked off on Monday, 6 September. Over 70 participants from 14 GCF projects and 6 accredited entities registered for this year's webinar.

IEU’s LORTA programme builds capacity and provides advisory services to GCF projects to enable them to track and learn about the impact of GCF investments. LORTA embeds real-time evaluations into funded activities to provide GCF project and programme managers high-quality data on implemention and the likelihood of impact. Learn more about LORTA here!

MULTIMEDIA

"You can almost think of this like getting the directions before you go on a road trip: you can still get to your destination without knowing where you're going [...], but the process is likely to be less efficient."

Learn about the IEU's evidence reviews in the latest IEU Spotlight video. Watch it here!
The latest episode of "the Evaluator" podcast  focuses on climate bonds and features Mr. Sean Kidney, CEO of Climate Bonds Initiative. In this episode moderated by IEU's Yeonji Kim, Sean talks about the hows and whys of climate bonds, which are linked to climate-friendly investments. 

This episode is based on the content of the IEU Virtual Talk "The Future of Climate Bonds" held in May 2021, which featured Mr. Sean Kidney and Dr. Jyotsna (Jo) Puri, Associate Vice-President of the Strategy and Knowledge Department at IFAD. 

You can listen and subscribe to 'The Evaluator' on all major podcast platforms.
Find it wherever you get your podcasts!

 

IEU ENGAGEMENTS

[2021 Asian Evaluation Week] The IEU participated in two AEW sessions. First, on 6 September, IEU’s Yeonji Kim moderated the EBRD session titled “On the road to recovery: What we can learn from the private sector response to COVID-19.” IEU’s Dr. Archi Rastogi, alongside participants from EBRD and AfDB, shared insights from the IEU’s evaluation of the GCF’s private sector approach, as a panelist.

[2021 Asian Evaluation Week]  On 7 September, IEU's Head a.i. Andreas Reumann joined participants from DEval and ADB in an EIB session titled “Climate adaptation: From evaluation to action." In the session moderated by Inspector General of the EIB Mr. Jan Willem van der Kaaij, Andreas and other panelists discussed key evaluation findings and recommendations, methodological challenges in the adaptation space and the use of GIS data analysis.

[European Evaluation Society Online Conference “Evaluation in an Uncertain World: Complexity, Legitimacy and Ethics”] On 8 September, IEU's Head a.i. Andreas Reumann participated in a joint session with GDN and DEval on global evidence in the climate action and finance space. They discussed the use of evidence reviews, intervention heat maps, in particular with respect to climate change evaluations.
[European Evaluation Society Online Conference “Evaluation in an Uncertain World: Complexity, Legitimacy and Ethics”] On 8 September, Dr. Martin Prowse chaired a round-table discussion titled “Evaluating Climate Adaptation: Conceptual Clarity, Metrics and Innovation" and presented the IEU's independent evaluation of the adaptation portfolio and approach of the GCF
[Adaptation Futures Conference] On 7 October,  IEU's Yeonji Kim and Viktoriya Khan took part in a session titled "The evidence gap map of adaptation and heat map of interventions in developing countries” with DEval. Yeonji chaired the session and presented the IEU's evaluation on the adaptation portfolio and approach of the GCF, and Viktoriya presented the IEU's evidence gap map on forest conservation.
[Global Development Network's "Evidence for Development: What Works Global Summit 2021"] On 19 October, IEU's Head a.i. Andreas Reumann chaired a panel session titled "Evidence curation in climate change: How do we use evidence for climate change finance and action?". The session, jointly held with DEval, also featured the IEU's Viktoriya Khan and Elangtlhoko Mokgano as panelists. 
[Global Development Network's "Evidence for Development: What Works Global Summit 2021"] On 25 October, Dr. Martin Prowse took part in a session, where he showcased the IEU's evidence review on private sector investments in mitigation, and participated in a discussion looking at the state of current evidence on interventions to reduce energy consumption and mitigate the effects of climate change.
Stay tuned for IEU's upcoming engagements at:

COMING UP

 
Upcoming evaluation:
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