This evaluation examines the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Country Engagement Strategy (CES) for Saint Lucia for the period 2020–23, including activities designed and implemented until December 2024. The evaluation uses a mixed-methods approach, combining document reviews, portfolio analysis, and stakeholder interviews, to inform the next CES. The evaluation process supported participation, reflection, and co-creation. During the inception phase, feedback was collected from CDB staff and Government of Saint Lucia (GOSL) counterparts to refine the focus and ensure evaluation questions would generate insights aligned with both CDB’s strategic needs and GOSL priorities. A Theory of Change workshop was conducted with CDB and GOSL stakeholders to reconstruct the underlying logic of the CES and identify key assumptions and change pathways. This collaboration provided a shared foundation for assessing progress and strategic alignment. Validation of emerging findings was carried out via an online workshop. A hybrid co-creation workshop was held with Saint Lucia-based stakeholders and CDB staff to collaboratively develop recommendations and ensure proposed actions are useful, specific, and actionable, with the aim of increasing the success of the next CES.
Evaluation of Policy-Based Lending Operations at the Caribbean Development Bank 2017-2025
Financial Services
Evaluation Report
Corporate
Complete
CDB
Management Response
Yes
Summary
Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has extensively made use of Policy-Based Lending (PBL) as a strategic instrument to support macro-fiscal stability, institutional reform, and resilience-building across its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs). Given the instrument’s growing importance and evolving design, the Bank commissioned this independent evaluation to assess its relevance, effectiveness, and future strategic positioning.The evaluation concludes that the CDB should continue using Policy-Based Loans (PBLs) but ensure clear policy and institutional additionality through complementary operations grounded in technical assistance (TA). These engagements should prioritise a sequenced, programmatic, and development-oriented approach.
The evidence indicates that PBLs are more likely to contribute to sustained reforms when they are:
- Cross-sector integrated from the outset, rather than primarily economics-led;
- Anchored in coherent reform trajectories coordinated across sectors and development partners;
- Designed around broader reform pathways rather than discrete prior actions; and
- Supported by grounded technical assistance designed alongside the operation and focused on institutionalising reforms beyond disbursement.
The analysis further shows that reliance on ex post evaluation and limited post-disbursement follow-up constrains the depth of reform and organisational learning. This insight points to the need for a more systematic engagement that builds on CDB’s comparative advantage, learning, and adaptation.
Such an approach should:
- Enable sector-integrated course correction during implementation;
- Strengthen PBL governance and incentive arrangements that support reform continuity and sustainability; and
- Prioritise development impacts rather than speed of disbursement.
In practical terms, this would require institutionalising structured post-disbursement engagement through ongoing evaluation and a diversified set of monitoring, evaluation, and learning methods embedded within dynamic learning loops. These systems would enable continuous feedback, adaptive course correction, and sustained policy dialogue beyond loan closure.
