GGGI’s Strategic Plan 2015-2020 set a clear direction for the Institute to contribute to 6 strategic outcomes. This was to be achieved by focusing on delivering three intermediate outcomes, one of which is contributing to mobilize green investments. GGGI’s approach to implementing its objectives has evolved continuously since 2016 in response to member and partner country needs and implementation experience. The objective of the evaluation was to review and validate the results to date and identify lessons and opportunities to further improve the delivery and impact of GGGI’s green investment services.

Key evaluation questions

1. What key results and lessons have emerged from GGGI’s green investment work?
2. Are GGGI’s green investment service offerings relevant and adding value to members and partner countries?
3. How can GGGI strengthen the scaling up of its investment work?
4. How can the internal management and processes of GGGI’s green investment services be made more efficient and effective?

Key findings

• 86% of the value of investment commitments reported at the time of exit are still valid even and two-third of this value had progressed to signed investment agreements or disbursement.
• GGGI occupies a niche place in the market for green investment services and clients value its service offerings but communication of GGGI’s value propositions and results also requires improvement.
• GGGI aims to achieve results at scale but there is lack of a clear definition and operational approach to scaling up investment projects and an up front, structured approach to scaling up needs to be operationalized and simple methods of knowledge sharing are needed
• As GGGI’s green investment services offerings mature, it is important to plug specific gaps related to management of staff and processes to support scoping activities.

Recommendations

• Develop clear criteria to measure and report when initial investment commitment has been achieved and strengthen quality assurance in its annual reporting process to avoid erroneous reporting.
• GGGI’s annual reporting should begin to include reporting on progress of projects after the initial investment commitment stage.
• Clarify the definition of which investors can be classified as private sector, including as it relates to state-owned companies.
• Consistently identify all critical actors related to a project upfront and examine ways to establish formal stakeholder engagement mechanisms..
• Improve communication of GGGI’s value proposition and results through simple communication materials and on multiple platforms
• Adopt a clear definition and operationalize a structured, upfront approach to scaling up its investment projects.
• Adopt simple but formal methods and platforms for knowledge sharing going forward as the number of projects in the pipeline increases.
• Adopt a regional management approach for its GIS staff in each of the regions that GGGI works, with regional investment leads reporting to the Head of Green Investment Services.
• Adopt a phased approach for budget allocation for scoping of investment projects.

Management response

• Contained in the main evaluation report.

Evaluation summary

• Evaluation Brief 

Background documents

• An Approach Paper was published in April 2019 providing an overview of the Green Investment Service program as well as the proposed evaluation design, methodology, and workplan.
• Annexes to the main evaluation report contain key facts about projects covered under the Evaluation, the list of stakeholders interviewed, and documents reviewed