Relevance of the operations

· How effectively aligned were financial sector operations with the priorities and guiding principles stated in the FSDPS?

· To what extent did the financial sector operations address the needs of beneficiaries and the root causes of the financing gap: underperforming financial sectors, constraints within the financial sector?

Design of the operations

· Do project designs clearly state and justify why operations target private or public sector actors?

· Are there clear and plausible hypotheses of how project interventions lead to outcomes and impacts?

· Do operations include clear definitions of indicators that measure the financial sector development including data sources, and description of methodologies used to collect data/evidence?

· Is there a clear indication of the direct and indirect end beneficiaries of the project (specify if it is the end beneficiaries or the

impact of the project on other players/areas)? Do they make a distinction in the financial inclusion outcomes between men and women, rural vs urban, youth vs. adults, underserved targets, etc.?

· Are there any conditions precedent to disbursement or any covenants that could be enforced to allow the improvement of the institution’s practices (risks, governance) and the impact monitoring?

Effectiveness

· Have the operations achieved planned results at output, outcome and impact levels; have the operations produced any indirect and unintended results, beneficial or negative?

· Did the financial sector operations contribute to improve access for the unbanked and underserved and deepen Africa’s financial systems?

· What has been the role of the Bank in creating an enabling environment for operations to support the financial sector (at micro, meso and macro levels)?

· To what extent have projects promoted women activities (in terms of economic empowerment and financial inclusion)?

· To what extent have projects promoted environment preservation when applicable?

· What has been the profitability of the operations for the Bank, the borrower and the end beneficiary institutions?

Efficiency

· Did the Bank have appropriate processes, mechanisms, assessment tools, standards, quality assurance, implementation and monitoring evaluation mechanisms, how effectively were they used?

· Were the resources earmarked to financial sector operations used efficiently and implemented in a timely manner? Otherwise, were strategic objectives and development objectives attained cost-effective and on time? In case of cost and time overruns what were the main reasons? Were the projects implemented overall in the most efficient way compared to alternatives?

· Did the beneficiary institutions have staff, financial resources, organization, governance and procedures to efficiently implement the Bank’s operations?

Sustainability

· Were sustainability conditions in place including institutional arrangements, technical capacity, building skills, increased ownership, risks assessment and management; to what extent were these conditions long lasting?

· Was the financing mechanism appropriate to foster continuation of activities after the end of the Bank support? Do operations formulate clear exit strategies?

· Were there any plans and lessons to foster development of the sector including policy dialogue to enhance enabling environment in African countries (political decisions, amendments to legal, regulatory and administrative texts, etc.)?

Bank’s Performance

· To what extent did the Bank carry out diagnostic studies or relied on existing relevant studies for the formulation of the FSDPS and for the preparation of the operations? Did it use the right instruments to tackle issues standing in the way of access to finance?

· How was the FSDPS translated into operations (implementation/action plan, business models, processes, results framework, etc.)?

· To what extent were the Bank’s structures, procedures, financial and staffing capacity adequate to identify, design, supervise and learn from the projects as well as produce knowledge?

· What and how effective has the role of the Bank been in resource mobilization, coordination, economic and sector work, and policy advice?

· Was the Bank effective in responding to issues emerging during implementation?

The role of beneficiary financial institutions and participating countries

· Have participating RMCs adopted policies and strategies enabling financial sector development? Are there long-term political commitments to the operations and what incentives were in place to own the operations and sustain their results after completion?

· Do beneficiary institutions have the organization, administration, staff, financial resources, and procedures to efficiently implement the operations? How successful were they as channels of development outcomes and what were the drivers of success?