Completion Assessment Reports – sharing learnings from our closed portfolio investments

Last year, GIF kick-started a new workstream of retrospective mini-evaluations for closed and exited investments and we are now publishing the summaries from these assessments as we complete them. Grounded in best-practice, these completions assessments are based largely on desk reviews and interviews with investees and other stakeholders, and reflect the diversity of our portfolio both thematically and in terms of investment type and size.

The first two are from a grant for an anti-malaria home-proofing study and an equity investment in a digital payments company.

The completion assessments describe the achievements of, and learnings from former portfolio innovations, how those achievements came about, and progress on the pathway to scale. The complementary Impact Briefs that we are now also publishing, on the other hand, present current portfolio innovations at a glance. The goal for both is to draw learnings that can enhance investment approaches and development understanding in a transparent and accountable way. The assessments serve additional purposes including:

• Creating a single reference document which can be used for further analysis, policy engagement, and support independent evaluations
• Assembling proof-points for how GIF can better do our job as an evidence-informed investor
• Sparking dialogue and meaningful reflection with innovators, in a manner that goes beyond standard reporting
• Generating learnings for the development community on individual innovations and enhancing sector-wide knowledge through the meta-analysis of multiple innovations.

The completion assessments are “live documents” that can be updated as new information emerges, government policies shift, or market dynamics evolve. This ensures the understanding of the impact and scale-up of an innovation is as current as possible.

We also intend to undertake larger-scale evaluations for bigger investments, and ensure that these evaluations include the beneficiaries’ voice, with direct narrative from the poor whose lives we have set out to positively impact. We continue to seek ways for our investees, and us, to tap this key source of feedback, before, during, and after implementation.