Measuring additionality

DEval was represented in the OECD-DAC EvalNet Working Group on “Evaluating Blended Finance”, the “Impact Working Group” of the Tri Hita Kara Roadmap on Blended Finance, and the Community of Practice on Private Finance for Sustainable Development (COP-PFSD). In the Working Group on “Evaluating Blended Finance”, which concentrates mainly on improving evaluation practice in the context of blended finance, DEval led the subgroup on the development of evaluation methods for different blended finance instruments/approaches and drafted a working paper for this area in collaboration with a consultant. Within the Tri Hita Karana Working Group, DEval jointly led the subgroup on impact and impact measurement along with the Center for Global Development and developed a checklist for measuring the impact of blended finance on the poorest of the poor. Likewise in the Community of Practice, which deals with aspects including the development of impact standards, DEval’s main contribution is the evaluative perspective.

The working groups promote and coordinate dialogue between these groups in order to develop market-wide standards and/or methods in the evaluation of blended finance projects and programmes. Established standards and methods will contribute to increasing the impact orientation of approaches with reference to development policy objectives.

Since 2024, DEval has focused on measuring additionality in blended finance projects. The fundamental idea behind the concept of additionality is that a project brings about an effect that would otherwise not have occurred. Measuring additionality presents challenges similar to those involved in demonstrating (counterfactual) causality. Evaluations of blended finance projects face the additional challenge that sensitive financial data is not available. This makes it difficult to apply established methods to address these challenges. DEval is therefore trialing practical methods for measuring additionality, for example in the evaluation of the Evaluation of the Instrument of Fiduciary Holding Funds.