About Evaluation

About us

The Evaluation function is composed of a team of over 20 professionals, including experienced evaluators and support staff.

We work in line with international principles and standards for evaluation, such as the OECD-DAC Principles for Evaluation of Development Assistance and the Big Book on Evaluation Good Practice Standards issued by the Evaluation Cooperation Group, of which we are a member.

We operate independently from the EIB Group’s operations and submit reports without change or delay to the EIB and/or EIF Board(s) of Directors, following EIB Management Committee and/or the EIF Chief Executive discussions.

Our role

We carry out independent evaluations of EIB and EIF activities with two main objectives:

Accountability: to see if Group activities have been in line with policy mandates and the strategies that followed from them, and if they delivered as expected.
Learning: we help to identify possible areas of improvement that can be applied to Group activities to increase performance in the future.

Evaluation contributes to forging a culture of responsibility and learning in the EIB Group.

Guiding principles

Utility

We aim to ensure our evaluations are relevant, timely, and accessible to support organisational learning, decision-making and accountability. To be useful, evaluations must be designed and conducted to meet the specific needs of identified stakeholders.

Credibility

We operate in line with internationally recognised good practices and quality standards for evaluation, such as developed in the OECD-DAC Principles for Evaluation of Development Assistance and the Big Book on Evaluation Good Practice Standards issued by the Evaluation Cooperation Group, of which the EIB is a member.

Independence

Our institutional set up ensures our organisational and behavioural independence, freedom from outside interference, and avoidance of conflict of interest.

We defines our own work programme and report directly to the EIB and EIF Boards of Directors. Our reports are submitted without change or delay to the EIB and/or EIF Board(s) of Directors, following EIB Management Committee and/or the EIF Chief Executive discussions.

Cooperation

We interact continuously with stakeholders within and outside the Bank. These exchanges ensure that the information collected is comprehensive and valid, and findings understood. We strive to ensure our conclusions and recommendations are relevant, useful and timely. Our evaluation insights are widely shared with internal and external audiences to inform decision-making.

The EIB Group Evaluation Policy

Evaluation is indispensable for an institution carrying out a public mandate, such as the EIB Group. It ensures the institution remains accountable and learns from experience, to continuously improve its work.

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