ADB FIELDS ’EVA’ TO HELP GOVTS TRACK COVID SPENDING

WITH billions being spent on coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Independent Evaluation Department (IED) said countries and even multilaterals cannot bypass evaluation and monitoring. In an Asian Development Blog, ADB IED Deputy Director General Veronique Salze-lozac’h said that the urgency by which the funds are needed by countries makes it easy to sideline monitoring and evaluation efforts.

Salze-lozac’h said another risk is for independent evaluation units or institutions to sacrifice their independence for the sake of being “part of the whole effort.”

She added, “The challenge for independent evaluation in times of crisis is to navigate between these two risks and find the right balance.”

Considering “the magnitude and importance of the funds invested,” Salze-lozac’h said, “accountability is needed more than ever to ensure these funds are well spent and the initiatives are fully effective.”

In order to support independent evaluation at this time, Salzelozac’h said independent evaluators should clarify their role, especially during times of crisis, while ensuring their neutrality.

She said they should also provide “just-in-time evaluative lessons” that institutions can use to design projects and programs.

’EVA’ at work

IN this area, Salze-lozac’h said the ADB IED is developing an artificial intelligence engine called EVA to scan thousands of documents to identify lessons in ADB’S operations in various developing member countries.

She said EVA will “churn out real-time lessons with a few clicks.” It will scan thousands of evaluation documents to inform project and program designers about the lessons in past projects.

“Learning from past experiences is critical for the success of new interventions, more so when so much is at stake. Evaluators can address this need by making evaluation lessons from past crises quickly available,” Salze-lozac’h said.

Apart from these, independent evaluators should also provide feedback on projects and disseminate the results. In so doing, they are helping crisis teams outline indicators that would help measure project and program outcomes.

Debt-driven spending

THE crisis is costing countries like the Philippines billions in debt. The funds are being used for various needs from the purchase of medical supplies and equipment to social assistance to families whose livelihoods were affected by the lockdown.

As of May 2020, the government has breached the P1.4-trillion borrowing program for this year, having taken out P1.509 trillion from both domestic and foreign sources.

Government’s gross borrowings as of end-may also surged by 91.75 percent year-on-year from only P787.13 billion a year ago, as the country needed more funds to fight the Covid-19 pandemic amid a ballooning budget deficit.

Of the total gross borrowings for the five-month period, 76.37 percent was sourced locally while the remaining 23.63 percent came from foreign sources.

Year-on-year, gross domestic borrowings as of end-may doubled to P1.153 trillion from only P576.016 billion in the same period in 2019.

On the other hand, foreign borrowings during the period jumped by 68.93 percent to P356.64 billion from P211.1 billion last year.