Developmental policies and inflicts changes on the winning projects

The Arab Gulf Programme for Development, AGFUND, announced the results of evaluating the impact of its pioneering developmental international prize on the winning projects. The team assigned by AGFUND to carry out the evaluation reached some assurances about the feasibility of AGFUND prize, the evident developmental impact of it on the winning projects, the way these projects changed after winning the prize and the benefits gained by the segments targeted by these projects. The evaluation team visited 4 countries of winning projects; namely, Egypt, India, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The team carried out a field inspection of the winning projects and met their officials and the beneficiary segments. Those in charge of the winning projects expressed their gratitude to Prince Talal Bin Abdulaziz, President of AGFUND, and highly appreciated the initiative of the Arab Gulf Programme for Development regarding examining the projects in their locations and monitoring on real grounds the developmental aspects as well as the positive changes that such projects inflict upon the lives of the poor. Mr. Nasser Bakr AlKahtani, Executive Director, AGFUND, had clarified that the preliminary results which the evaluation team had reached represent important indicators regarding the extent of AGFUND’s achievement of the prize strategic targets, encouraging and generalizing the transfer of successful experiences and also casting light on the developmental issues. AlKahtani further noted that the prize – in addition to introducing the pioneering projects and being a tribute to creative thinkers – is an approach for developmental support that was developed by AGFUND in a manner that enables the winning projects of promoting their performance and expanding to serve a broader base of beneficiaries. Alkahtani noted that the evaluation team reached a number of crystal-clear facts – through examining the nature of each project, meeting the officials and the beneficiaries as well as applying the evaluation standards – which prove that the prize was positively reflected on the winning projects in terms of investing the prize money in developmental aspects besides to broadening the base of beneficiaries. The officials in charge of these projects stated that the prize enlightened the world about the developmental activity that they carry out. In this regard, Abdulatif Aldowihi, Secretary General of AGFUND prize, mentioned that the step of evaluating the winning projects was taken upon the recommendations of AGFUND’s International prize committee – formed of global developmental figures – in its 11th meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, on the 14th of October, 2009 – regarding the evaluation of the prize impact on the winning projects; the evaluation step was also taken in light of the recommendations of the workshop held specifically for this purpose. The Islamic Development Bank had participated in financing this evaluation process. It is decided that the results which the evaluation and monitoring team had reached shall be raised to AGFUND prize committee, chaired by HRH Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz and includes among its members a number of developmental dignitaries representing the world regions. Aldowihi explained that AGFUND international prize for pioneering human developmental projects is the first of its kind in terms of targeting projects in order to generalize the successful experiences. The prize was established in 1999 and throughout this period 1009 projects from 130 countries in each of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, were nominated to win the prize, out of which 42 were able to win.