4. EvalPartners Network Resources
The Global Evaluation Agenda 2016-2020 (also called EvalAgenda2020) was formally launched at the Parliament of Nepal on 25th November, 2015. The aims of EvalAgenda2020 are to:
- Strengthen the enabling environment for evaluation.
- Develop Institutional capacities.
- Participate in EvalPartners efforts to build individual capacities for evaluation, focusing on evaluators, commissioners and users of evaluation.
- Support the inter-linkages among these first three dimensions by working together (as governments, parliamentarians, VOPEs, the United Nations, foundations, civil society, private sector, academia, and other interested groups).
As part of the realisation of this agenda EvalPartners launched global networks to promote engagement, innovation, and exchange such as EvalYouth, EvalSDG's, EvalGender+, EvalIndigenous, Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation.
Click the topic header to access additional information and a rich set of resources.
The topics covered in this section include:
4.1 EvalSDGs
[1]
Overview
EvalSDGs is a network of interested and skilled decision-makers, institutions and practitioners who advocate for the evaluability of new SDG performance indicators and support processes for integrating evaluation into national review systems and global.
EvalSDGs members support the evaluation community in preparing for the evaluation of initiatives to achieve better results for the SDGs and, ultimately, for the "World We Want".
For more information, contact:
- The EvalSDGs co-chairs: Dorothy Lucks (sdfglobal@sustain.net.au) and Ada Ocampo (aocampo@unicef.org)
- the EvalSDGs vice-chair: Kassem El-Saddik (kelsaddik@gmail.com)
or visit the website: https://evalsdgs.org [2]
4.2 EvalGender+
- [3]
Overview
Gender equality and social equity are central to ensure the realization of sustainable and equitable development, including in emergency and humanitarian contexts. The persistence of social inequity and significant gender inequalities in the world, including in low, middle and high income countries, presents a major barrier to development, negating fundamental human rights and the expansion of human freedoms. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include gender-equality and reducing inequalities as two stand-alone goals (SDG 5 and SDG 10). These are also mainstreamed within all goals. Given that the SDGs will be “localized” in national development goals and strategies, gender equality and social equity are expected to be among the key strategies and outcomes mainstreamed in global and national development strategies.
EvalGender+ wants to contribute to achieving social equity and gender equality by
Community of Practice
The Community of Practice on Gender and Evaluation, with more than 1,100 members globally is an open global platform that promotes engendering national policy through evaluation. Gender and Evaluation will serve as a knowledge hub for equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluation (EFGRE) on behalf of EvalGender+.
We invite you to join the CoP by signing up at http://gendereval.ning.com [4] and be part of the Gender and Evaluation growing community!
4.2.1 EvalGender Concept Note
As the world transitions into the post-2015 sustainable development agenda with a new set of SDGs, with an increased emphasis on gender equality and reducing inequalities, and the General Assembly adopts a new resolution reaffirming the importance of strengthening national evaluation capacity recognizing 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation, there is an unprecedented opportunity to better inform the SDGs at the global, regional and national level with credible equity focused and gender responsive evaluative evidence. Channeling this evidence into the post-2015 agenda will be achieved through mainstreaming social equity and gender responsiveness into the evaluability of the SDGs and engendering evaluation systems and policies, requiring the full coordinated participation of all interested stakeholders.
The Concept note provides detail information on the rationale, aims and proposed activities of this network.
4.3 EvalYouth
- [6]
Overview
EvalYouth was formed based on the Global Evaluation Agenda (2016-2020), known as the “Eval2020 Agenda”, which was developed and agreed upon during the Global Evaluation Week. Global Evaluation Week was held in Kathmandu, Nepal in November 2015, and was the culminating event during the International Year of Evaluation (EvalYear).
Evaluation’s most vital long-term goal is to contribute to sustainable and equitable development. This goal depends on the production of high-quality evaluations that meet standards for quality dimensions such as utility, feasibility, propriety, accuracy, and evaluation accountability. However, an ongoing issue faces the global evaluation community: the pool of skilled evaluators is shallow, and demand far exceeds supply. Additionally, young evaluators are also under represented in many Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluators (VOPEs). The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is expected to exacerbate this problem by drawing significant attention to evaluation. The challenge facing the global evaluation community and actors whose long-term goals rely upon high-quality evidence is:
How can we increase national, regional, and international capacity to produce high-quality evaluations of sustainable development initiatives?
In addition to the technical expertise of professional evaluators, the quality of evaluations depends on appropriate representation and participation from stakeholders. However, youth and young people are historically and frequently absent from evaluations of policies and programs that impact them, except as a potential source for data collection. If SDGs are to be fully realized, it is essential to prioritize the inclusion of youth and young people in evaluation processes. The need to include youth and young people in evaluation raises a secondary challenge for worldwide evaluators and those who commission and use evaluations:
How can we advocate for and include the voices of young people in the evaluation process?
To address both challenges, EvalYouth was formed.
Want to Know more? Get involved? Have Questions?
Please see our current concept note (below) for details on our work, including how we are organized.
For additional information, please contact EvalYouth (evalyouth@gmail.com [7]), or one of EvalYouth’s leaders:
Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead
Co-Chair of EvalYouth
bianca@uconn.edu [8]
Marie Gervais
Co-Chair of EvalYouth
marie.gervais@fmed.ulaval.ca [9]
Khalil Bitar
Vice Co-Chair of EvalYouth
khalil.bitar.hoc@gmail.com [10]
4.3.1 EvalYouth Concept Note
EvalYouth, an EvalPartners [11] initiative, has two overarching goals:
- To promote Young and Emerging Evaluators (YEE), including young women, to become competent, experienced and well-networked professionals who contribute to evaluation capacity at national, regional and international levels; and
- To promote the inclusion of Youth and Young People (YYP), including young women, in evaluations conducted at the national, regional and international levels.
4.4 EvalIndigenous
- [13]
Overview
EvalIndigenous is a multi-stakeholder partnership which, through the recognition of the different world views and valuing the strengths of Indigenous evaluation practices will advance the contribution of Indigenous evaluation to global evaluation practice. EvalIndigenous will promote the use of different evaluation approaches and methods to ensure evaluations are culturally sensitive, inclusive, and are tools in the improvement of community well-being including the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual development of individuals, families and communities. EvalIndigenous will attempt to inform individuals engaged in evaluation with Indigenous communities through
- documenting the evaluation and research protocols developed by Indigenous communities and organizations;
- facilitating learning and sharing of experiences;
- promoting innovation in approaches and methods used in Indigenous evaluation; and
- disseminating information regarding ‘lessons learned’.
For more information contact any of the below officials:
- Larry Bremner (larry@proactive.mb.ca [14])
- Victor Manuel Quintero (vmquinterou@gmail.com [15])
- Nicky Bowman (nicky@bpcwi.com [16])
- Fiona Cram (fmcram@gmail.com [17])
- Serge Eric Yakeu serge.eric01@gmail.com [18])
4.4.1 EvalIndigenous Concept Note
In order to strengthen and make evaluation more authentic in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities it is time to build on work that has been done to bring both world views together. As noted by Battiste, it is a coming together of Indigenous and western sciences or as Hatcher, Bartlett, Marshall and Marshall state it is ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’ “that is, to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of the western ways of knowing, and to use both of these eyes together.” Using this lens will help to ensure that the equity focused and gender responsive approach of EvalPartners is truly equitable.
The development of partnerships and the documentation where these approaches have been used will be shared with other organizations and evaluators in order to strengthen national capacity for evaluation. The UN General Assembly resolution on national evaluation capacity development supports the importance of strengthening national capacity for evaluation. It is essential that strengthening national evaluation capacity includes valuing the contributions of Indigenous world views and practices as well as recognizing the sovereignty of Indigenous nations.
Furthermore, UN Article 18 regarding the Rights of Indigenous peoples states, that “Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own Indigenous decision-making institutions.” Therefore, there is also a need that strengthened national evaluation capacity recognizes the differing cultural and contextual realities within Indigenous communities and among Indigenous peoples. As such, the documentation and sharing of cultural protocols will become and important contribution of EVALINDIGENOUS.
EVALINDIGENOUS as conceptualized will include communicating and networking with Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs), UN agencies, other international organizations, Indigenous governments, other governments, academia, think tanks and private foundations.
EvalIndigenous VOPE Survey Report
4.5 Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation
- [21]
Overview
The parliamentarians’ movement for evaluation has rapidly grown in past few years. Particularly during 2014-2015, regional parliamentarians’ fora were created in Africa, East Asia, Latin America [22] and MENA regions. The first ever parliamentarians forum, The Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation [23] (PFDE), was established in South Asia in early 2013. This was a historical milestone as the first time in the history parliamentarians raised their voices to advocate for national evaluation policies and to commit to put evaluation at the core of the agenda at the country level. Thereafter parliamentarians were featured in many international evaluation events for promoting national evaluation capacities. In this vein, one of the key milestones is the study on “Mapping Status of National Evaluation Policies” which was conducted by PFDE with support from EvalPartners. Also PFDE conducted a regional consultation in South Asia on national evaluation policies where all eight countries in the region prepared action plans.
The African Parliamentarians Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE) was initiated at the AfrEA conference held in Yaounde, Cameroon in March 2014 after one year of initiating PFDE. APNODE is hosted and supported by African Development Bank and it is the most formal group among all the parliamentarians’ forums currently active.
More importantly, the first ever national parliamentarians’ forum for evaluation was initiated in Nepal by a group of parliamentarians. In this context, EvalPartners together with other stakeholders organized one-day meeting entitled “Towards a Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation” which was held in Dublin, Ireland on 2nd October 2014 at the EES conference. The meeting was attended by parliamentarians from different regions, regional VOPE leaders and representatives of international organizations. Ms. Caroline Heider, Senior Vice President of the World Bank made the key note speech highlighting importance of parliamentarians engaging in evaluation. As agreed in the meeting, it was decided to launch the Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation at Global Evaluation Week in Nov 2015. It was launched on 25th November, 2015 at the Parliament of Nepal by the Hon. Kabir Hashim, Leader of the Forum, where all eight countries in the region prepared action plans.
Contact Us
- Asela Kalugampitiya, Secretariat aselakalugampitiya@yahoo.ie [24]
- Ada Ocampo, Secretariat/UNICEF Evaluation Office aocampo@unicef.org [25]
- Pradeep Liyanamana, Toolkit Coordinator pliyanamana@yahoo.com [26]
Or visit our website [27]
4.5.1 Engaging Members of Parliament in Development Evaluation
- [28]
Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPE) can initiate engaging parliamentarians through formal and informal advocacy and awareness on evaluation and its value to MP. Bring likeminded parliamentarians who are interested together forming a group or a forum. Taking a twin approach work with this group on one end to promote a National Evaluation Policy (NEP) which is institutionalize the concept of evaluation in a country. The other is to train and pilot the use of evaluation in development projects at the electoral level. This hands-on approach will help the MPs to better understand the value of evaluation to them and to their constituency. See the following simple framework to engage parliaments in development evaluation.
Who is a Member of Parliament?
Citizens of a country elect Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent their interests and concerns in parliament. Each MP represents an electorate or a group of citizens called a constituency. Therefore and MP works on behalf of his/her constituency.
What is the role of a Parliamentarian?
Members of Parliament have a:
- Legislative role making laws to govern a country
- Approval of financial appropriations and monitoring them
- Supervisory role of executive and other branches of government
Members of Parliament also work in select / sub committees to examine or work on policy issues, scrutinize the work and expenditure of government as well as examine proposals for legislation.
Members of Parliament are obliged to represent their constituency by addressing their concerns, lobbying and implementing development projects and activities in the electorate. In addition, as indicated above they do participate in committees and attend parliament plenary sessions in which they present, discuss and debate on issue of relevance to constituency as well as of national importance. Members of Parliament also actively participate in budget process by scrutinizing annual budgets followed by sectoral committee discussions and reviewing ministerial policy statements. This process gives Members of Parliament to influence the allocation of resources by debating on those allocations proposing priority areas for funding. It is then followed by implementing government programs in their constituencies giving them the oversight responsibility through various committees. These committees have the mandate to oversee government programs, ministries, departments and agencies.
What is Monitoring and Evaluation?
- Monitoring is the systematic collection, analyses and use of information from projects and programs for the purpose of
- Understanding and learning from experiences
- Allocation of resources and its contribution to achieve results
- Management and decision making purposes
- Evaluation is the systematic and objective assessment of on-going or completed programs, projects or policy with the purpose of stating the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability.
Why Monitoring and Evaluation?
- Steering – adjust and steering programs and projects towards its objectives
- Learning – learn more about what works and what does not
- Decision Making – better informed decisions can be made in allocating resources
- Monitoring – accounting mechanism for the resources used in meeting objectives and results achieved
How does evaluation help/assist Parliamentarians to fulfill the expected role?
Proper evaluation processes will provide much needed opportunities for greater participation of civil society groups in parliamentary activities, which in turn, improves parliament’s ability to represent the people through effective and efficient management of legislative, budgetary and oversight mandates.
It will create an environment to increase participation of civil society groups to interact with Members of Parliament and improve Members of Parliaments’ willingness to consult with those groups is an excellent means to enhance MP’s ability to represent their constituencies and to ensure that the national planning and budgeting process reflects the needs of the people.
“Evaluation provides us with an opportunity to learn about what is working and what is not working and what we need to do to improve our performance. We must take this opportunity, all of us who are in the public service, to see how we can improve the impacts of the money we spend on our citizens. Our first evaluation on Early Childhood Development has already been completed and the results are being implemented. In this National Evaluation Plan Cabinet has agreed to the top eight priorities for evaluation during 2012/13. These are all significant topics, which can make a significant difference in the lives of our people.” Hon. Ohm Collins Chabane, Minister of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation and Administration, Republic of South Africa, June 2012, Foreword to the National Evaluation Plan 2012-13."
Process of Creating Interest Amongst Parliamentarians on Evaluation.
- Outreach and communicating what monitoring and evaluation is and its use as a tool to meet constituent expectations.
- Identification of like minded parliamentarians who see the value of using evaluation as a tool
Examples from selected countries where parliamentarians are engaged in promotion of evaluation: Global Parliamentary Forum for Evaluation [27]
The Global Parliamentary Forum for Development Evaluation was launched by Hon. Kabir Hashim, Minister of Public Enterprise Development, Sri Lanka in November of 2015. The first ever parliamentary forum for development evaluation was established in South Asia, in Nepal in 2013. Ever since the movement has grown and spread across many countries and continents.
Content developed by Pradeep Liyanamana
4.5.2 Building Awareness and Capacity of Parliamentarians on Evaluation
- [29]
Building Awareness and Capacity of Parliamentarians on Evaluation
- Conduct awareness and training programs for these selected parliamentarians
- Develop an informal forum in parliament to discuss and apply the concepts of evaluation
- Provision of technical input to this forum or group in the application of evaluation
4.5.3 Building Awareness and Capacity of Parliamentarians on Evaluation
Parliaments around the world have the power to create real change for people by strengthening the demand for evaluation.
• Several CSOs, VOPEs and other stakeholders pro-actively engage with parliamentarians. However this engagement must be a long-term process that is built into evaluation advocacy strategies.
• Engaging with parliamentarians requires a thorough understanding of the political and policymaking environment, ways in which the parliament functions and the level to which parliamentarians currently use evaluation and evaluative thinking in decision-making.
• Depending on your context, identify strategic entry points for engaging with parliamentarians, such as through parliamentary leadership, parliamentary committees, individual parliamentarians, and parliamentary caucuses. Look out for pending bills related to evaluation that can be used as an entry point to start a discussion.
• A promising movement is the Parliamentarians Forum on Development Evaluation in South Asia that is supporting parliamentarians to take the lead to advocate for national evaluation policies in South Asia. Other initiatives include a project on ‘Engaging Parliamentarians for an Innovative Evaluation Culture’, which won EvalPartners Innovation Challenge in 2013.
4.5.3 Examples of Evaluation Frameworks, Policies and Plans
- [32]
A few examples of Evaluation Policies, Plans and Frameworks are included in this section.
Status of National Evaluation Policies – Global Mapping Report [33]
Ten Reasons Why a National Evaluation Policy is Important [34]
Ten Reasons for Parliamentarians to Engage in National Evaluation Policy Process [35]
National Evaluation Policy Framework, South Africa
[36]
National Monitoring and Evaluation Policy of Zimbabwe [37]
National Evaluation Policy Framework, Philippines Presentation [38]
Malaysian Framework for Evaluation Policy and Standards [39]
Monitoring and Evaluation Policy of Tinidad and Tobago- Presentation
[40]
Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation for Bhutan - Presentation [41]
4.5.4 Terms of Reference NEP assignment (Nigeria)
The Terms of Reference seeks to address the need for Nigeria to have an evaluation policy that will govern the evaluation function of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the federal level and provide guidance, including for the budget plan for evaluation studies.
4.5.1 Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation Concept Note
Why it is important for parliamentarians to promote use of evaluation?
Developing and strengthening evaluation policies in countries is important for good governance and effective development. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015 and their focus on country-led evaluation in line with identified priorities for SDG targets that are most relevant to the national and local context have also emphasized the need for countries to strengthen their data collection, analysis and review processes. One of the key principles of SDGs, “No one left behind,” points to the importance of achieving equity focused and sustainable development. It is a challenge in many countries that disadvantaged communities sometimes do not get benefits of development. That is why equitable development needs to be emphasized with equity focused and gender responsive evaluation. More over EvalPartners in collaboration with other stakeholders developed and launched the Global Evaluation Agenda 2016-2020 at the Parliament of Nepal according to which national evaluation policies and systems play and important role at country level. According to the study on “Mapping status of national evaluation policies”, only 20 countries have established national evaluation policies. It shows how far the journey ahead is and where we stand now. The Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation is planning to further advance the important work on NEP and systems and proposes the following strategy.
Goal:
The goal of the Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation is to advance the enabling environment for nationally owned, transparent, systematic and standard evaluation processes in line with the principles of “No one left behind” and National Evaluation Policies with equity-focused and gender responsive lens at the country level that are aimed at contributing to good governance and sustainable development.
Objectives:
1. To enhance evaluation technical capacity of parliamentarians and national parliaments to promote evaluation culture.
2. To advocate more parliamentarians and national parliaments to create enabling environments for evaluation.
3. To promote the evaluation function for Sustainable Development Goals in the framework of “No one left behind”.
4. To mobilize and advocate for the international community, including United Nations, to strengthen evaluation capacity of national parliaments.
4.5.1 Country Updates
Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation has several country updates on http://www.pfde.net/index.php/programme [46]
Nepal
First country to have a national parliamentarians’ forum; National Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation Policy in Nepal. All political parties represent in the Forum. The Forum members were instrumental in inclusion of evaluation in the Nepal new constitution (article 54). The Forum was instrumental in organizing the Global Evaluation Forum 2015 in the context of International Year of Evaluation at the parliament of Nepal which is the first evaluation event in a national parliament. Nepal draft national evaluation policy is being endorsed. The Forum works closely with the VOPE to promote evaluation. http://www.pfde.net/index.php/programme/promote-nep-at-fora [47]
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation was established in October of 2016 by a group of parliamentarians under the leadership of Hon. Kabir Hashim, Minister of Public Enterprise Development and Hon. Niroshan Perera, State Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs. Officials of Several Government Departments as well as representatives of UN Agencies in the country also participated at this important event. Follow up orientation session to Parliamentarians was conducted in early part of February 2017 with technical assistance from Dr. Dorothy Lucks. Participating parliamentarians developed a road-map for their activities for the year 2017. http://www.pfde.net/index.php/programme/mappingnepssystems [48]
Kenya
Evidence of studies done indicate the need to increase capacity of parliamentarians to make evidence based decisions. Since there was no structure way to address this by sharing experiences, findings and make evidence based decisions making in the parliament of Kenya, the parliament formed the Parliamentary Caucus on Evidence-Informed Oversight and Decision Making. This is an informal network with members comprising of both the National Assembly and the Senate. This group is committed to promoting responsible governance through evidence-based oversight. https://globalparliamentarianforum.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/parliamentarians-caucus-for-evaluation.pdf [49]