GEI Partner-Led Sessions at the NEC Conference Explore Uncertainty, Innovation, the Environment and Other Critical Topics

GEI Partner-Led Sessions at the NEC Conference Explore Uncertainty, Innovation, the Environment and Other Critical Topics
news
26 October 2022

Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI) partners will be exploring important topics around building resilient national evaluation systems at this year’s National Evaluation Capacities Conference (NEC). The conference is hosted bi-annually by the United Nations Development Program’s Independent Evaluation office (UNDP-IEO), a founding partner of GEI. NEC will be held from October 26 – 28. Registration for virtual attendance can be found here.

The importance of high-quality data and evidence at the national level - needed to track progress towards development goals and course correct when needed - cannot be overstated. Capturing and using this evidence requires strong evaluation systems that are country-led and country-owned.  The NEC conference series is designed to offer opportunities for attendees - government officials, civil society organizations, evaluation associations and other evaluation stakeholders - to share experiences and knowledge with each other to contribute to the strengthening of their country’s national evaluation systems.  This year’s sessions will be organized around three intersecting themes:

  • National evaluation systems: people, processes and systems;
  • Sustainable development: people, planet and peace; gender equality and social inclusion; climate change governance; and fragility, conflict and violence; and,
  • Methodological innovations for a new world.


GEI partners are leading or participating in the following plenaries/sessions:

 

DAY 1

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

  1. Plenary 1: In an Era of Complexity and Uncertainty, Can We Do Without National Systems?

GEI’s Program Manager, Dugan Fraser, serving as moderator, will be joined by a distinguished panel to discuss how to ensure national evaluation systems play a central role in responding to the pandemic and getting the SDGs back on track.

  1. Session A1: Status of National Evaluation Systems

Candice Morkel, Director of CLEAR Anglophone Africa, a GEI Implementing Partner, will be joining a panel to discuss:

  • What is holding back the development of National Evaluation Systems.
  • Where are the “capacity traps”, vicious and virtuous circles that explain these setbacks?
  • How can conceptual frameworks help establish NES and identify gaps?
  1. Session C1: The Need for Evaluation in an Unstable World

Alison Evans from the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), a founding partner of GEI, will be moderating a discussion on evaluation approaches when responding to world challenges. The session will focus on how evaluation systems can play a more effective role in informing decision-making, strengthening accountability, and building transparency in a rapidly changing world.

  1. Session D1: Innovating to Evaluate Beyond the 2030 Agenda

In this session, GEI Program Manager, Dugan Fraser, will be part of a panel moderated by Indran Naidoo, Director, Independent Office of Evaluation, IFAD (a GEI Donor) to discuss how to bring about a systems-thinking approach for transformative change and whether evaluation is innovative and nimble enough for a rapidly changing world.  

  1. Session A2: Assessing National Evaluation System and Capacities

Edoe Djimitri Agbodjan, Director, CLEAR Francophone Africa, a GEI Implementing Partner, will be moderating a panel to explore how national evaluation capacity diagnostic tools can support and strengthen evaluation systems and what is needed to accelerate their use.

  1. Session B2: Participación ciudadana para fortalecer sistemas nacionales de evaluación

Helena Stadtmüller, Advisor to GEI and evaluation capacity development expert at Deval (a GEI Donor), will moderate a panel exploring how the inclusion of key actors, such as civil society organizations, academia and the private sector can contribute to the strengthening of national evaluation systems.

  1. Session C2: COVID-19 Response and Recovery: Evaluating National Interventions –

Jozef Vaessen, Adviser to GEI, will moderate a panel that will discuss evaluation challenges faced during the pandemic and explore the importance of national evaluation systems that are coordinated, consolidated, and country-led.

 

DAY 2

Thursday, October 27, 2022

  1. Session A3: National Evaluation Policies

Megha Pradhan, Director, CLEAR South Asia, a GEI Implementing Partner, will moderate a discussion on how to build robust evaluation policies for national evaluation systems.

  1. Session C3: Environmental Sustainability

Patricia J. Rogers, Director, Footprint Evaluation Initiative and Founder/former-CEO of GEI’s BetterEvaluation platform, will moderate a session discussing how to move from only evaluating environmental interventions to ensuring environmental sustainability considerations are included across ALL evaluations.

  1. Session D3: Evaluation Methods to Inform Policy

Lycia Lima, Deputy Director, CLEAR LAB, a GEI Implementing Partner, will moderate a session to discuss the power of rapid evaluations for policy-making.

  1. Session A4: Challenges and Opportunities in Institutionalizing National Evaluation Systems

Candice Morkel, Director, CLEAR AA, a GEI Implementing Partner, will be moderating a panel addressing real-life challenges and opportunities in establishing and strengthening a national evaluation system. The session will focus on how to build on existing initiatives, how to link sub-national M&E systems to country-wide systems, what challenges are faced in Small Island Developing States, and what is needed to institutionalize evaluation.

  1. Session A5: Financing National Evaluation Systems

Oscar Garcia, Director, UNDP-IEO, a founding partner of GEI, and Karen Rot-Munstermann, Evaluator General, African Development Bank (a GEI Associate Partner) will join colleagues to discuss why systems need financing to succeed and ensure they are sustainable.

  1. Session C5: Engaging Youth in Evaluation

Gabriela Renteria Flores, Chair, EvalYouth (a GEI Associate Partner), will moderate a panel on “Meaningful Engagement of Youth in Evaluation” with distinguished participants including Marco Segone, Director, Evaluation Office, UNFPA (a GEI Associate Partner). The session will include the launch of the “Youth in Evaluation” manifesto.

 

DAY 3

Friday, October 28, 2022

  1. Session D7: Transformational Change

Heather Bryant, Evaluation Advisor, GEI/UNDP-IEO will moderate a panel on integrating human rights-based, gender-sensitive and feminist approaches in national evaluation systems for transformational change.

Closing Session: The Turin Agenda

Join Oscar Garcia, Director, UNDP-IEO and Alan Fox, Deputy Director, UNDP-IEO, along with Alison Evans, Director, Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank, Heather Bryant, Evaluation Advisor, GEI/UNDP IEO, and Dugan Fraser, Program Manager, GEI, for unveiling of the Turin Agenda, a roadmap developed over the three days of the NEC Conference that will inform GEI’s strategy over the next few years.

To attend the conference virtually, register here. For more information on the event, visit the NEC Conference page.