The series consists of correspondence primarily between DGO Yves Rovani and IFC Chief Evaluation Officer Walter I. Cohn, and relates to the DGO's responsibility for oversight of IFC's operations evaluation activities. An Operations Evalution Unit (OEU) was established within the Development Department of IFC in 1984. Included are drafts of IFC operations evaluation work programs for fiscal years 1986-1993 forwarded by Cohn to Rovani and to his successor Robert Picciotto for review and comment. Accompanying many of the work programs are proposals for special studies. Draft approach papers for those studies, also forwarded to DGO for review, include those prepared for the following studies: IFC's experience in the tourism sector (1989); performance of IFC's oil and gas exploration program (1991); successful IFC investments in Sub-Saharan Africa (1991); lending for industrial technology development (1992); IFC's market assessments (1992); and IFC's experience in the privatization of State-owned enterprises (1992). Comments prepared by the Country Policy, Industry and Finance Division (OEDD2) on some of the approach papers are included.

Also among the correspondence are comments from the DGOs to Cohn on OEU work programs and use of resources along with notes from the first meeting (July 16, 1986) at which the role of DGO in operations evaluation in IFC was discussed. Also included are: minutes of special meetings of the Portfolio Committee at which IFC evaluation studies were discussed; a list of IFC project completion reports for fiscal year 1982 to fiscal year 1986; a copy of a May 20, 1987, memo distributed to all IFC high level staff on new procedures for project completion reports; and Cohn's February 21, 1991, memorandum copied to Rovani in which he responds extensively to issues raised at an earlier Joint Audit Committee (JAC) Sub-Committee on Operations Evaluation meeting regarding IFC's evaluation capacity, IFC evaluation work, and the relationship between IFC and DGO and OED. In this memo he also responds to issues surrounding a report prepared by OEU on IFC's experience in the agricultural production sector.

A small amount of miscellaneous correspondence arranged by subject (1983 - 1995) includes: formal and informal memoranda and other correspondence between the Director, OEU, Walter I. Cohn and DGO's Mervyn Weiner, Yves Rovani, and Robert Picciotto; approach papers for studies forwarded for approval to DGO before being sent to the JAC, copies of IFC policy papers, and draft IFC evaluation reports, workprograms, and budgets. Also included are an Annual Portfolio Evaluation Report for FY 1983 and an updated mandate statement for evaluation in the Bank and IFC that reflects findings of the March 1995 report of the review of evaluation in IFC.

Subject files (1980 - 1995) found with the correspondence include the report of IFC's first evaluation of a segment of its portfolio of investments, IFC Hotel Portfolio Review, forwarded by DGO Mervyn Wiener to the Joint Audit Committee (JAC) for review on May 11, 1981. Also included are reports of IFC evaluations in the agricultural, mining, and petrochemical sectors completed between 1983 and 1994 and in the cement and textile industries sectors between 1983 and 1989. There are also files containing correspondence and reports relating to: evaluations of successful investments in Sub-Saharan Africa (1994); support for small and medium scale enterprises (1995); investment assessments performed by OED (1992 - 1994); IFC's Five Year Program for fiscal years 1985 - 1989; and the review of evaluation in IFC (1994 - 1995).

A small amount of miscellaneous IFC and OEU reports (1979 - 1989), some of which are annotated, forwarded to DGOs Mervyn Weiner, Yves Rovani, and Robert Picciotto are in the series. A number of these reports were distributed to the Board of Directors including three confidential Project Completion Reports (PCRs) on three IFC investments in Guatemala (1979), Brazil (1979), and Indonesia (1979). These three reports were distributed in January 1980 to the Board based on a decision made at an October 30, 1979, Board meeting. Each director was to receive a copy to indicate the type of PCR IFC had been preparing and to illustrate why caution was necessary when disseminating information contained in the reports. Other IFC reports included are: Annual Portfolio Evaluation Reports for fiscal years 1984 and 1986 - 1988; a report entitled Deterioration in IFC's Portfolio: An Analysis (March 1985); and a report prepared by a consultant entitled IFC in Sub-Saharan Africa, Proposals for a New Approach (February 1987).