Canada Fund for Africa: Summative Evaluation Executive Report

Launched in 2002, the Canada Fund for Africa (CFA) was a strategic policy initiative supporting the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). It represented a commitment of C$500 million over five-years (2002 to 2007) including the C$100 million that was allocated to the Canada Investment Fund for Africa (CIFA). CIFA was launched in 2005 and is expected to end in 2014. A summative evaluation of the CFA was commissioned in 2008, following the closure of CIDA's CFA Secretariat. The CFA evaluation did not include in its scope the C$100 million allocated to CIFA, an initiative that is the object of a stand-alone evaluation.

The CFA evaluation concluded that the Fund contributed positively to NEPAD's expected outcomes. It also demonstrated that CFA initiatives were successful in achieving the majority of their development results, particularly in the two major sector portfolios: health; and agriculture, water and environment.

The CFA evaluation did not provide recommendations since the Fund was designed as a sunset program of limited duration. However, it provided some important lessons for CIDA's future programming, including:

• A whole-of-government approach to inter-departmental development programming brings value-added in terms of policy guidance, technical expertise and networking;
• Innovation and leadership in supporting local institutions generates important outcomes and plays a catalytic role in attracting other donors support;
• Applying CIDA's policies, such as the mainstreaming of gender equality, can be more challenging when establishing new partnerships; and,
• Working in a multi-donor context facilitates CIDA's ability to apply the full range of aid effectiveness principles.