Description

Additionality is at the heart of blended finance interventions. We want to ensure that private investors are not crowded out of the market, and we also want to ensure a development impact beyond what would otherwise have occurred without the intervention. However, additionality is a challenging concept. It is being defined, interpreted and used differently by different stakeholders, and there is no common agreement on which methodologies to use when assessing and evaluating additionality, ex ante or ex post. This is a challenge for evaluators of blended finance interventions, and it is a challenge for institutions at the operational level to manage for additionality. It is also a political and strategic challenge for institutions involved in blended finance, as questions around additionality are at the heart of justifying the use of public funds for blended finance. The session will discuss different approaches and key challenges in understanding, assessing and evaluating additionality. An OECD EvalNet Working Paper “Evaluating financial and development additionality in blended finance operations” will be presented and followed by insights from EBRD, EIB and CDC on how institutions at the operational level are dealing with the challenges of assessing, evaluating and documenting additionality. Moderator: Magdalena Orth, Senior evaluator and team leader, German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval)