Partnerships
As a global partnership, GEI relies extensively on global, regional, and local partnerships to create a world where evidence is used to increase transparency and make better decisions to improve lives. GEI brings together a large network of ECD stakeholders, including governments, bilateral and multilateral organizations, ECD services providers, civil society organizations, academic institutions, M&E associations, and M&E experts.
Governments
GEI’s ECD programs are designed to serve and influence governments, which are its key partners. The initiative prioritizes governments with lower income levels and countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence. GEI prioritizes engagements that can generate cross-fertilization of knowledge and geographic areas with lower income levels or higher incidence of poverty (for example, poorer states).
Bilateral and Multilateral Organizations
GEI is coordinated through the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group and the United Nations Development Programme Independent Evaluation Office, which have been leading actors in ECD initiatives in international development. Their existing initiatives and networks constitute important platforms for this new initiative.
GEI is also joined by other important ECD players, including the independent evaluation functions of the multilateral development banks. These include the African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and Islamic Development Bank. GEI partners with other key international agencies, such as the Global Environment Facility Independent Evaluation Office.
Evaluation Capacity Development Services Providers
In addition to leveraging the ECD programs and country presence of bilateral and multilateral organizations, GEI works with technical collaborators. These include the regional Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results (the CLEAR Initiative); the International Program for Development Evaluation Training; the Programme International de Formation en Evaluation du Développement, Better Evaluation, with which GEI collaborates on knowledge sharing activities; and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie).
The CLEAR Initiative is a collaborative global program founded by academic, bilateral, and multilateral institutions to support evaluation capacity strengthening in developing countries. Conceived as an innovative approach to developing the M&E capacities of governments and civil society organizations, it is backed by prestigious academic institutions recognized for their excellence in the evaluation field. CLEAR’s six regional centers and two affiliate centers are coordinated by a global hub housed within the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group.
The International Program for Development Evaluation Training is an executive training program, launched with the support of the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group, that aims to provide decision-makers, managers, and practitioners with the needed tools to commission, manage, and evaluate policies, programs, and projects at the local, national, regional, and global levels and use those evaluations for decision-making.
ENAP is the largest French-speaking public administration university in the world. ENAP is leading the Programme International de Formation en Evaluation du Développement, an intensive training program for evaluation professionals and public managers of French-speaking developing countries.
Better Evaluation is the largest knowledge platform on M&E activities, frameworks, and systems in the world and is a global community that creates, shares, and supports use of knowledge about how to better plan, manage, conduct, and use evaluation.
3ie promotes evidence-informed equitable, inclusive, and sustainable development. 3ie supports the generation and effective use of high-quality evidence to inform decision-making and improve the lives of people living in poverty in low- and middle-income countries.
Civil Society Organizations, Academic Institutions, M&E Associations, and M&E Experts
To enhance its impact locally and contextualize its work, GEI activities are implemented in partnership with local entities such as universities, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, voluntary organizations for professional evaluation, private firms, and individual evaluators. This enables GEI to strengthen the capacity of local players and contribute to developing a sustainable supply of ECD services locally. GEI also works with technical partners to provide needed expertise and with the broader M&E community to foster knowledge sharing, collaboration, and coordination.