Good morning, everyone, it is a genuine pleasure to see you all here.
This is a fantastic opportunity to come together after a period of us being all apart and working remotely and only seeing each other through that small aperture on the screen.
I suspect before COVID-19, we would have taken events like this very much for granted, but I suspect none of us is doing that today and we’re all incredibly privileged to be here.
But let’s not sugar-coat what is going on around us at the moment. We are living in hugely challenging and uncertain times where many areas of societal progress - poverty, inequality, education, health and environment - are facing massive shocks, and even reversals.
In a context like this the stakes of not making good decisions about where and how to commit resources that respond equitably and inclusively to the key challenges of today and seek to mitigate and avert the crises of tomorrow could not be higher. The dangers of our decision‑makers ‘flying blind ’ without the right evidence they need to tackle hugely difficult choices and trade-offs are immense; and so are the risks of weakened or no accountability for the decisions that are taken in our name.
All of this serves to underscore the fact that it could not be a more important time to be focusing on the data and evidence needs of our decision-makers, and in particular, the sometimes hidden but undeniably vital role of National Evaluation Systems.
We’ve come a long way in evaluation, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that in recent decades we’ve seen nothing short of a revolution in the stature and the practice of evaluation. But while evaluation practice has evolved massively, embedding that practice in the rules, routines and behaviours of organizations, and most importantly in the mindsets of decision-makers themselves, remains a work in progress.
Experience tells us that whatever the context, leadership for building National Evaluation Systems has to be home-grown - country ownership really matters. We also know it’s a complex process of institutional design, where many different actors ranging from evaluators themselves to commissioners to the multiple users from legislators to CSOs and informed citizens, knowledge brokers and translators of evaluation evidence. Collaboration and connection are therefore key - both amongst and between the many stakeholders working in and around evaluation.
We’re also acutely aware that the pressures are mounting all the time on all forms of evidence, including evaluation, to be more relevant, more timely, more agile, more focused on the big challenges and the big calls of the day, more inclusive, less northern, less elitist.
There’s no single recipe book for responding to all of this, but there is by now a lot of accumulated good practice and excellent technical and non-technical knowledge that we can share amongst us to support the development of National Evaluation Systems.
This is the motivation behind the establishment of the Global Evaluation Initiative founded by the IEG of the World Bank group in collaboration with UNDP IEO, and now involving multiple partners across the global landscape, who all want to amplify global knowledge and support country-led efforts to build robust, reliable and resilient evaluation capacities and systems.
It’s terrific to see here today GEI partnering with UNDP IEO on this NEC event, which brings me to the purpose and the power of a gathering like this where we can hear from all of you and learn from you about the progress and challenges in shaping evaluation practice and strengthening evaluation systems - not just rehashing the problems but finding the solutions for tackling the big challenges of today and tomorrow.
We have a clear mission here - to make this event count and to take it to the next level by committing to a shared ambitious Turin Agenda.
To close, I want to congratulate Oscar and all his colleagues for their vision and determination in pulling together this event and of course to our hosts here at the ITC ILO. We all know that everything is harder since the pandemic - even arriving here and getting our luggage at the same time.
These things are sent to try us - times are tough. But I know that you will join me in a very warm round of applause to thank Oscar and his team for a fantastic organization and we’re looking forward to these three days.
Thank you!!
