Guide to Investment Appraisal for DFID Economists

Abstract

This report is a practical guide to the use of investment appraisal (IA), a method of systematically assessing and comparing proposals using objective and rational criteria. It can apply to a single and well-defined act of investment (a project), a group or series of projects (an investment programme) or even a policy or piece of legislation. It can also be used to justify specific items of recurrent spending. The pre-condition for the use of IA is that the proposal should be coherent, have clear boundaries, and its effects should be identifiable