This Country Strategy and Programme Evaluation (CSPE) examines the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Country Strategy and Programme (CSP) for Trinidad and Tobago for the period 2017–21; and activities implemented and designed by the Bank until 2024. The evaluation, drawing on international evaluation standards for CSPEs, uses a mixed-methods approach, combining document reviews, portfolio analysis, and stakeholder interviews, to inform the next Country Engagement Strategy (CES).

The Evaluation Policy of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) sets out the principles that guide a strong, independent evaluation function: supporting learning, accountability, evidence‑based decision‑making, and transparency across the Bank. Updated to reflect CDB’s core values, lessons learned since the first policy in 2011, and significant advances in global evaluation practice, the policy responds to the 2024 external peer review’s call for urgent revision. The result is a modern, forward‑looking policy aligned with internationally accepted evaluation standards.

In 2024, the Office of Independent Evaluation (OIE) moved from being a small, largely external-facing function to a genuine engine of learning within the Bank. The Peer Review by Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and World Bank (WB) experts presented an honest mirror, and action was taken: a revised Evaluation Policy, a new Lessons Learned database, a Power BI dashboard tracking every recommendation in real time, and Gender-Responsive Evaluation Guidelines - all developed in 2024. Evaluations tackled the issues that matter most to the Caribbean: water security, climate resilience, poverty reduction, and how the Caribbean Development Bank's (CDB's) flagship concessional fund - the Special Development Fund - is performing on the ground. A first-ever Synthesis Study pulled together lessons from five country evaluations to sharpen future strategy. Expanding global reach, OIE represented the CDB at evaluation forums in China, Guatemala, and The Bahamas, advocating for evaluation approaches built for Small Island Developing States - not just adapted from elsewhere.