UNICEF and partners gather 260 participants in two webinars to discuss the role of evaluation in development

Within the UNICEF/UNDP/WFP/UNIFEM/ILO/IOCE/DevInfo series of monthly live webinars on "National Evaluation Capacity Development” (to access the fullprogramme:

http://www.mymande.org/?q=content/developing-capacities-country-monitoring-evaluation-system&x=cl

with authors of the new book “From policies to results. Developing national capacities for country M&E systems”,   260 participants from all over the world joined the first two webinars to discuss the role of evaluation to ensure meaningful and lasting development results.

The first webinar with Saraswathi Menon, Director, Evaluation Office, UNDP,and Chair, UN Evaluation Group, and Finbar O’Brien, Director, Evaluation Office, UNICEF, focused on “the Role of the UN in fostering national ownership and capacities in evaluation”.  Saraswathi Menon described the important progress done by the evaluation function so far. However, she also acknowledged its potential is not fully realized to promote public action.

In order to do so, Finbar O’Brien explained evaluation should shift from being donor-led toward being country-led, thus serving the information needs of programme countries. Marco Segone, in his concluding remarks, highlighted the main roles of the UN in fostering national ownership, including by strengthening national evaluation capacities of national and local governments, as well as Civil Society Organizations, to demand, plan, conduct and use evaluations. The recording of the webinar is available at http://www.mymande.org/?q=content/un_role_in_fostering_national_ownership_and_capacities_evaluation

The second webinar with Michael Quinn Patton, Founder and Director, Utilization-focused evaluation, and former President of the American Evaluation Association, and Marco Segone, Systemic management, UNICEF Evaluation Office, and Senior advisor to the IOCE Executive Board and former Vice President, focused on “Future trends in evaluation”. Michael Quinn Patton spoke about six future trends, notably Globalization of the profession; Evaluation as a transdiscipline; Increased political importance of M&E; Growing emphasis on capacity-building and essential skills; Debate about methods, including the Gold standard debate; and using systems thinking and complexity concepts.

Marco Segone further developed the debate on growing importance of evaluation capacity development. He presented a framework to strengthen national capacities for country-led M&E systems that addresses both demand and supply side, while strengthening the enabling environment, as well as institutional and individual capacities.

The recording of the webinar is available at http://www.mymande.org/?q=content/future_trends_in_evaluation

We  are  looking  forward  to  the  next webinar in September with Caroline Heider,   Director,   WFP  Evaluation  Office,  and  Craig  Russon,  Senior Evaluation Specialist, ILO Evaluation Office.

Best regards

________________________
Marco Segone
Systemic Management
UNICEF Evaluation Office
Three United Nations Plaza
New York, 10017
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