Capacity-development is at the heart of development. Today we are gathered here to share our experiences about developing evaluation capacity. Not just any capacities, but the capacities to conduct, to commission and to use evaluations.
Evaluation, as a discipline, is needed to assess progress made. Evaluation, as you all are aware, is embedded in the political process. And we need to be realistic. Assessing public policies is not easy as it brings transparency by asking the hard questions. Evaluation does not only ask why things happen but also who benefits from these results? Who wins? Who loses? And under what circumstances?
I come from Bolivia, one of the most beautiful and diverse countries in Latin America. It is also one of the most unequal. It hurts me to see that many people in my country cannot access quality education, nutrition or health care. Youth, and particularly young women, lack access to decent jobs. Their inability to have a dignified life today deprives them of the opportunities of the future.
Every system is designed to produce results. The development model, as we know it, is not working. At least, not for the vast majority of the people in our countries. It doesn’t yield the sustainable results we need as humans. Evaluators are part of the system and can contribute positively to its improvement, to deliver positive results for the people. We need to change the system based on the evaluative evidence generated by our collective efforts.
However, incremental change is not good enough. We need transformational change and for that we need to know what works, what doesn’t and bring the necessary change at scale.
How can we strengthen national evaluation capacities in the midst of crises? How can we build resilience in the midst of fragility? What are the opportunities behind the compounded crises we are experiencing today?
Instead of falling into despair, I invite you to lift your eyes and look to the future. Look at the inclusive and sustainable future we want to build for our children, and for the children of our children. We have a responsibility to protect the vulnerable, the weak, the marginalized. We need to break free from old habits and build new avenues for hope.
In this conference room we have the hope, the will and the determination to bring about change and we will build together the new agenda for developing evaluation capacity. We will build the Turin Agenda for the NEC.
Let me close by thanking the many partners that together are building this new agenda.
I want to thank the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), with whom we are building the Global Evaluation Initiative; the CLEAR Centres who are at the forefront of this process; the bilateral partners with their invaluable support to this effort; my colleagues from the United Nations gathered in the United Nations Evaluation Group. Our colleagues from EvalNet, from OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) DAC (Development Assistance Committee) countries, colleagues from the regional development banks, from civil society organizations (CSOs) including the Voluntary Organization for the Promotion of Evaluation or VOPEs (Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation), colleagues from universities, colleagues from the IOCE (International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation) and from ALNAP, the humanitarian evaluation network.
I want to also thank the fantastic team of the UNDP IEO in New York, and our hosts from the ITC of ILO and, most importantly, I want to thank you, the representatives of more than 100 countries who are here today to share your experiences, your needs and your hopes.
Please speak up! We want to learn from you. This is your conference! Many thanks for your attention.
It gives me great pleasure to present the proceedings of the 2022 National Evaluation Capacities Conference, which marks a significant milestone in evolution of the conference series since it began in 2009.
Today we are living in uncertain and challenging times. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent crises have changed how countries face the challenge of strengthening national monitoring and evaluation systems. Evaluating the effectiveness of public policies has become not just a necessity but an imperative.
I hope that these proceedings will provide inspiration and insight for strengthening national evaluation systems in support of collective efforts to get back on track toward the achievement of the SDGs. There are new challenges in the post-pandemic era, but there is also a renewed commitment to foster a more inclusive and sustainable development pathway, to which these proceedings stand testament.