In development, a quiet shift is underway. Across major development institutions, there is a concerted push to work together, use a common language for results, and tell a clear, consistent story about what aid financing is actually achieving—grounded in evidence, not just reports.

The question is no longer what did we finance? It is what changed, and did we know early enough to improve it?

This shift is happening under mounting pressure. Fiscal space is tighter. In 2025, overseas development assistance fell 23 percent, the largest annual drop ever. Perceptions are hardening—in many donor countries, a significant share of the population believes their governments spend too much on aid. Client countries are being asked to deliver more, faster, and with greater transparency. And multilateral and bilateral development agencies are increasingly judged not by commitments made, but by outcomes achieved.

This is not just a reporting challenge. It is a delivery challenge.

For years, results measurement has focused on explaining performance after the fact, remaining too distant from the decisions that shape delivery. That model no longer fits how the world works today.

Projects operate under volatility, constraint, and constant adjustment. Assumptions change. Risks materialize earlier. Data arrives faster. Technology makes visible what was once hidden. In this environment, results measurement cannot remain retrospective. It must become part of implementation itself—using evidence in real time to steer decisions, manage trade-offs, and improve outcomes as projects evolve.

But the systems and skills required to do this consistently are not yet in place. The gaps are clear. Sixty percent of M&E degree programs are concentrated in North America. Training pathways in developing countries are uneven. And the system is crowded, with more than 1,200 indicators tracked across multilateral institutions. For client countries, the burden is tangible: multiple frameworks, overlapping requirements, and different definitions of what “good” looks like.  This fragmentation is also reflected in client perceptions. Only 30 percent of stakeholders surveyed by ODI Global believe MDBs coordinate effectively on how results are measured and assessed. At the same time, demand for coordination is clear. Nearly half of government officials emphasized its importance, compared to just over a third of MDB officials.

This is why we are coming together to launch PIUneer.

PIUneer —Project Implementation Units for Results— is a joint effort by multilateral development banks and partners to define a shared foundation of standards, competencies, and learning for results professionals working in development projects.

It focuses on those closest to implementation: the results officers in project teams, in ministries, in delivery units, and across public and private sector operations financed by multilateral and bilateral institutions.

If we expect better outcomes, we need to invest more deliberately in the people, skills, and practices that shape them.

PIUneer will develop a common learning curriculum grounded in shared standards and practical competencies. It draws on collective experience and integrates advances in data, analytics, and implementation support into a coherent, practice-oriented approach. It will create a more dynamic and accessible market for skills, so high-quality capabilities are available wherever projects are delivered.

This is not surface-level harmonization. It is harmonization from the bottom up.

PIUneer aims to align how results are defined, how evidence is generated, and how it is used in practice. The goal is to reduce complexity for client countries by making expectations more consistent and evidence more comparable across institutions.  It works with country systems and counterpart priorities through tailored, context-specific support grounded in delivery.

If development partners ask countries to strengthen results systems, they should not ask them to do so in different ways for each partner.

Results measurement is no longer a narrow technical function. It is becoming a hybrid discipline combining measurement, context, behavioral insight, technology, and operational judgment.

The practitioner needed today is not only someone who defines indicators. It is someone who identifies meaningful signals, interprets them, and translates them into timely decisions—linking data to delivery, evidence to action, and measurement to management.

This is especially timely for private sector development. As impact investing scales, firms are expected not only to report on impact, but to measure and manage it effectively. Development finance institutions can connect resources, expand access, and help build the practical capacities firms and fund managers need.

These skills must be built at scale.

The urgency is amplified by a broader transformation underway. Advances in artificial intelligence, data systems, and analytics are rapidly expanding what can be known during implementation. But more data does not automatically mean better decisions. Without the right skills and standards, it can just as easily lead to noise, overload, and delay.

The challenge is no longer access to information. Data is growing exponentially—80 percent of the world’s data was generated in the last five years. But the ability to use it is not keeping pace. In low-income countries, data use has declined since 2016, according to the Statistical Performance Indicators.

By strengthening professional foundations —clarifying expectations, aligning competencies, and creating shared learning pathways— PIUneer aims to ensure that this new data-rich environment translates into better outcomes, not just better dashboards.

For too long, results measurement has been adjacent to delivery. The next phase of development requires making it part of delivery’s core architecture.

That is the shift we are pioneering - together.

Authors:

• Alessandro Maffioli is Managing Director of Development Effectiveness at IDB Invest.
• Alexandre Meira da Rosa is the General Manager, Office of Strategic Planning and Development Effectiveness at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
• Armand Nzeyimana is the Director of the Development Impact & Results Department at the African Development Bank Group.
• Carola Alvarez is Managing Director of the Office of Development Effectiveness (ODE).
• Issa Faye is Director-General for Global Practices and Partnerships at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
• Ke Fang is Director General of the Portfolio Management Department (PMD).
• Laurent Biddiscombe is Executive Director for Global Client Solutions at Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the French Development Agency.
• Lisandro Martín is Director of the Outcomes Department at the World Bank Group.
• L. O’Reilly Lewis is the Director of the Projects Department at the Caribbean Development Bank.
• Pablo Fajnzylber is Director of Development Impact Measurement at the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
• Stefania Bazzoni is a senior official at the Council of Europe Development Bank, where she currently serves as Director of the Executive Office and Chief of Staff.
• Trevor Lewis is Director of Development Outcomes at the Asian Development Bank, where he also chairs the Blended Finance Committee.
• Zacharie Mechali is the Head of Results and Impacts at the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).