Trainer: Dorothy Lucks, Ada Ocampo, Robert Stryk
Level: Begining/Intermediate
Language: English
Workshop short description:
In 2018 UNICEF developed training materials as well as a guidance document, for embedding evaluation on Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). The first training using the said materials was conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the African countries which present VNRs in 2019. The first version of both the training materials and the guidance document counted with the support of CLEAR Anglophone Africa. The training was after replicated in Asia at the APEA regional Evaluation Conference held in Manila in February 2019.
This workshop is proposed for participants at the National Evaluation Capacities Conference (NEC). It is aimed at increasing the capacity of government officials and other stakeholders to embed evaluation in SDGs reporting.
The key objectives of the workshop are:
- To raise awareness on the importance of the use of evidence for decision making and for reporting on the progress towards the achievement of the SDGs.
- To highlight the importance of evidence-based Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) that include rigorous disaggregated data as well evidence from country-led and other types of evaluations.
- Understand the relevance of scaling up evidence from evaluations, to inform national policies, as a means to accelerate progress towards the SDGs.
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to use evidence from evaluations and other sources in VNRs.
Workshop detailed description:
Every year, governments have the opportunity to present Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), to report on their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. VNRs typically include a narrative as to how countries have linked the SDGs to national efforts and what progress, gaps and efforts are found in implementation of the 2030 agenda. Analyses done by EVALSDGs of the first three cycles of VNRs, have concluded that these reports are, in a very limited way, based on Evidence. Moreover, reports demonstrate an unclear understanding of what evaluation is and what is its main purpose.
In view of the above, UNICEF proposes this workshop aiming to contribute to increase the capacity of countries on the use of evidence in VNRs.
The workshop is proposed as a one-day event covering the following topics.
- “Embedding evaluation in national plans and policies to foster transformative development” – Overarching presentation
- The policy cycle;
- Evidence vs opinion; different types of evidence - Group work
- What is Evaluation and Evaluation typology
- Country-led evaluations and evaluation systems
- Overview
- Real case example
- Rapid evaluations and use of previous evaluations
- Comparison of national evaluation systems
- How to use evidence from evaluations to inform VNRs. Presentation followed by a group work.
- Guide on embedding evaluations on VNRs.
- Countries develop way forward
The workshop targets government officials who are responsible for implementation and reporting of SDGs, parliamentarians, evaluation community members and development partners.
Learning outcome:
Upon successful completion of the workshop, participants will be able to use evidence, from evaluations and other sources, to report progress on the SDGs.