Achieving positive development results is at the core of IFC’s mission. Measuring development results well is critical, as it helps us to assess our activities, improve our operations, and report on our performance to promote learning and provide accountability to stakeholders.
DOTS – Innovation in Results Tracking at IFC
In 2005, IFC launched the Development Outcome Tracking System (DOTS) for monitoring development results from investments and advisory services. DOTS builds on IFC’s ex-post evaluation framework, which is widely recognized as good practice for evaluating private sector investments. It allows for real-time feedback into project design and implementation. By using standard indicators we can aggregate results, capture development impact and compare development effectiveness across regions and industries.
Measuring Our Results – “What gets measured gets done”
We assess a project’s impact on its stakeholders and measure development outcome against clear project targets that are defined at the outset. One key measure of our development effectiveness is the proportion of operations that generate positive overall development outcome. Overall development outcome in turn captures economic, social and environmental, and financial performance of the project along with broader private sector development impacts. More about how we measure our results.
Development Effectiveness Reporting
Reporting on IFC’s development effectiveness is part of our accountability as a public development institution. Articulating our results, successes, and shortcomings helps us incorporate lessons to strengthen our performance in the future. We report on our development effectiveness at least once a year, starting with our 2007 Annual Report. The data there is backed up by the more extensive information available on this website. See also IFC’s Disclosure Policy.
Detailed results of our investments.
Some of our first findings from DOTS are captured in our Monitor Notes.
