Emmanuel Jimenez

Emmanuel-Jimenez
Designation: Director General, Independent Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Emmanuel Jimenez is Director General, Independent Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Reporting to ADB’s Board of Directors, his responsibilities include assessing ADB’s development effectiveness, as well providing lessons to inform ADB operations. Prior to joining ADB, Mr. Jimenez worked as an Independent Consultant who provides advice, and conducts research and training on evaluation, economics, development management, education and social protection programs. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director and CEO of 3ie. In this role, he led and conducted impact evaluations and evidence reviews. He provided strategic direction to the organization as it championed the generation and use of evidence to guide decisions regarding policies and programs that improve lives in low and middle-income countries. Previously, Mr. Jimenez had worked for 30 years in the World Bank Group (WBG) and held several senior management roles across several departments such as the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), the South Asia, East Asia, and Pacific Groups, and the Policy Research Department. Mr. Jimenez was a faculty member of the Economics Department of Western University in London, Canada. Throughout his career, he has published extensively, including articles in peer-reviewed professional journals, books and reports on economic development and served as managing editor of several international development journals.

Born in the Philippines, Mr. Jimenez is a national of Canada. He holds a Doctorate in Economics from Brown University in the United States, a Master’s degree in Economics from University of Toronto in Canada, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from McGill University in Canada.

Blogs by author

Evolution or revolution? What MDB course corrections mean for evaluators

“Hard a starboard!” These were the orders of First Officer William Murdoch aboard RMS Titanic on the night of 14 April 1912 immediately after lookouts signaled a rather large obstacle ahead. Though still half a kilometer away, the gigantic ship nonetheless struck the iceberg that was in its way.

Dhanyavaad aur alvida from Manny Jimenez

In his last blog, Manny Jimenez, 3ie's outgoing executive director looks back at his five-year tenure and recounts some of his best experiences at 3ie and in India. Following this blog, Ruth Levine (on behalf of 3ie's Board of Commissioners) has written a note thanking Manny for his service and his myriad contributions to 3ie. She also extends a warm welcome to 3ie's new executive director, Marie Gaarder.

Be careful what you wish for: cautionary tales on using single studies to inform policymaking

For a development evaluator, the holy grail is to have evidence from one’s study be taken up and used in policy or programming decisions that improve people’s lives. It’s not easy. Decisions are based on many factors. The availability of evidence is just one of them. And of course, even when evidence is taken up, it does not mean that it will lead to the right decision.

Putting government in the driver’s seat to generate and use impact evaluations in the Philippines

Impact evaluations are sometimes criticised for being supply-driven. It is hard to know for sure. There is no counterfactual to what would have happened without the impact evaluation. Regardless of whether this is true or not, one of the ways to ensure that an impact evaluation is more demand-driven is to put the government in the driver’s seat for increasing the demand for evaluation.

3ie: from take-off to cruising through an ever changing world

Even though it’s been over three years since I joined 3ie, I was still fascinated to read Howard White’s reflections on how it all started. A question that has often come up for me as well is about why I’m in Delhi. As Howard said, the vision of an organisation having its locus of authority be in the Global South, is something that attracted me as well.