Private Sector Advisory Projects : Methodological Reflections from the Independent Evaluation Group’s Experience and Approach

Overview & Synopsis

Advisory and capacity development work—whether described as technical assistance, capacity building, or knowledge support— are an integral part of development. They help strengthen the skills, systems, and institutions needed to turn financing into real, lasting reforms. Despite the steady increase in the volume of advisory services, however, many development finance institutions lack systematic approaches to measure and evaluate the contribution of these services and learn from their experience. Several factors contribute to this: first, advisory services projects often yield behavioral or institutional changes that are harder to capture. Second, they generally reveal their impacts over a longer time horizon, making it challenging to track and evaluate them within typical project cycles. Third, they are often delivered along with other interventions, making it difficult to disentangle their contributions. Using the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Advisory Services self-evaluation system and IEG’s independent validation work, this paper takes a closer look at why evaluating advisory projects is so challenging, and what can be done to improve it. It highlights common methodological obstacles and reflects on what IEG has learned from years of validating these projects. The paper offers practical steps to strengthen evidence, learning, and the institutional systems that are needed to support credible self-evaluation and validation across advisory interventions.