In his opening remarks, Emmanuel Jimenez made a presentation on why there is an IED and what it does. According to him, the IED provides shareholders with an independent assessment of returns on their investment in ADB. Unlike in the private sector, return is not measured by profit but by the development impact of ADB’s portfolio. Using commonly agreed evaluation criteria, IED assesses whether ADB is doing the right things and whether it is doing them right. Sharing knowledge from its evaluations is a key part of IED work.

IED staff outlined five areas for collaborating with civil society organizations (CSOs) from their listening to CSO views during the Annual Meeting events: the Safeguard Policy Review; Climate Change Action Plan and Climate Risk Assessments; project performance monitoring system; assessing the situation when the projects have finished; and capturing and learning from lessons.

During the discussion, participants raised questions about evaluation plans for safeguards, climate actions, reports of reprisals, anti-corruption work, CSO engagement in ADB operations, and related actions on LGBTQ+ issues. In response, Garret Kilroy and Benjamin Graham said that CSOs can comment on IED’s rolling three-year work plan and suggest topics. The final decisions on the work plan are made by ADB’s Board of Directors. They also encouraged CSOs to search the IED website for actions on areas of their interest and to get in touch with the designated lead person.

Content originally published at https://www.adb.org/annual-meeting/2024/events/dialogue-ied-cso