Project monitoring and assessment

The assessment of efforts to foster development carried out by public managers, development agencies, NGOs and companies have grown in importance, and disclosure has expanded. Several studies have been published by BNDES technicians throughout its existence, containing assessments of the impacts of their actions. More recently, the Bank developed and implemented methods and processes to monitor and assess the effectiveness of such actions, going beyond the physical-financial follow-up on loans. The proposal is original in that it inserts the effectiveness assessment process into the analysis and follow-up routines of its operations, so the process becomes systematic, sustainable and institutionalized.

The financial support provided to investment projects produces effects or impacts on the economic, social, environmental and institutional aspects. The effectiveness assessment (or the assessment of impacts) seeks to measure the Bank’s level of contribution to sustainable development, aligned with the Federal Government’s development policies. It consists of applying quantitative and qualitative techniques that reveal the objective of operations carried out and that measure their scope.

The main pillar that offers support for the effectiveness analysis that is increasingly being adopted by the BNDES is the Logical Framework – also called Logical Matrix, Logical Model or Theory of Change. It is a planning instrument for projects and programs widely used by multilateral development agencies. In it, the cause and effect relationships between activities and the expected impacts are represented as are the chosen indicators to indicate the desired results. [1]

The BNDES has gradually improved the effectiveness assessments, which will enable: better organizational knowledge concerning operations performed; feedback on corporate planning processes; redesign of programs and operational lines; and transparency of the effects generated for the government, clients and society.

1. Publications are available (also on the BNDES’ website) with applications of this model in the BNDES Profarma program (BNDES Setorial 33) and in the BNDES Card (Revista do BNDES 36).