ROME, MAY 25 – The Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has just been ranked as number one by the highly regarded and influential Quality of Official Development Assistance Report which evaluated the capacity of 49 countries and multilateral agencies to deliver impactful long-term assistance to countries in need.
The annual report produced by the Center for Global Development measures and compares the indicators that matter most to development effectiveness and impact. This is the fifth edition of QuODA; it has been substantially revised since the last iteration.
“IFAD’s high ranking is a testament to the importance we place on ensuring that every dollar spent has a long-term impact on tackling the hunger and poverty experienced by the world’s most vulnerable people,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD. “It also highlights the transparency of our funding model, the alignment of our work with countries’ own development priorities, and the importance we attach to evaluating our work.”
IFAD ranked in the top 10 for each of the four dimensions and 1st on Transparency & Untying. It ranked 4th on both the Ownership and Evaluation dimensions, owing to strong alignment with partner country objectives and high-quality evaluation systems. It ranks 7th on Prioritisation, and scores well on measures of poverty focus and the share of ODA that reaches partner countries.
The African Development Fund (AfDF) is 2nd overall, continuing its strong performance from prior QuODA iterations. The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) ranks 3rd, with strong scores across all four dimensions. The Global Fund and GAVI complete the top five.
Sweden tops bilateral providers
Sweden’s score is pulled up by strong performance on the Evaluation and Transparency & Untying dimensions, where it ranks 1st and 6th, respectively. But its average performance on Prioritisation and Ownership leave room for improvement. Finland and Denmark rank 2nd and 3rd amongst bilateral providers, respectively. Finland scores consistently well across all dimensions, while Denmark shows strong performance on the Evaluation dimension. Canada and Belgium complete the top five bilateral performers.
Italy ranked 31st on QuODA 2021. Its strongest performance is on Transparency & Untying, where it ranks 15th due to comprehensive reporting to the OECD. It ranks just above average on Prioritisation, with high core support to multilaterals. In 2019, Italy spent the grant equivalent of US$4.4 billion as ODA, which represents 0.22 percent of its GNI. (@OnuItalia)
