How DPMG Helps its Clients

DPMG works at each phase of the project cycle to improve the ultimate health of the client's investment portfolio, as shown in the figure below. In all cases our focus is on getting results.

DPMG assesses not only whole portfolios, but also subsets of a portfolio of special concern to the client. These customized reviews can focus on projects for a country, a region, a sector, a time period, or those that the client has identified as "problem projects."

Decision to Invest

In deciding how to allocate an organization's resources, decision-makers want to estimate the risks and returns of investing in a particular country and sector. In some cases a focus on results can be best served by deciding not to invest in a particular country or sector at that time.

In the spirit of "past is prologue," DPMG can help clients analyze the implications of the evaluation results for projects that have closed or that are still being implemented in countries and sectors being considered for investment. Such findings can be organized into a risk management decision framework, complemented by other information, such as ratings of a country's public sector performance and institutions.

Project Design

The quality of a project's design is highly correlated with project success. Meta-analyses of evaluations of active and closed projects/programs show that poor design decisions end up consuming inordinate supervision resources downstream and markedly increase the probability of failure. Early evaluations of project design—even those that give designs low ratings—improve the success rate of projects. Evaluations highlight common design mistakes that can lead to project failure.

Case Study: Project Failure Often Linked to Design Problems

Project Implementation

While projects are still under implementation, real-time assessments allow for mid-course corrections of projects that are in danger of failing. Evaluations at this juncture can prevent the loss of billions of dollars.

At the World Bank the core team for DPMG developed innovative methods of estimating the likelihood that projects would reach their development objectives. Working with task teams, DPMG can identify actions to rescue failing projects—or, in some cases, can help a task team and its managers confront the need to restructure the project in a major way or to cancel it altogether. The assessment and recovery of active projects can be fast and effective. In some cases, an entire region's development outcomes can be assessed and improved.

 

Case Study: Assessing Active Projects Can Prevent Losses
Case Study: Failing Projects Can Be Rescued Quickly
Case Study: A Region's Bad Performance Can be Identified and Fixed

Project Closure

Assessments of closed projects are critical for learning if the funder's organization is structured to incorporate lessons learned into its operations. They can identify a project's achievements, its efficiency, its sustainability, and its relevance to the country and sector. Ex-post assessments also identify the contribution of different players (the funding organization, the project task team, implementing agents, beneficiaries) to the results observed and the factors that influence their behavior.