The next NEC Conference will take place in Beijing, China from October 14 to 18 in 2024. The main theme of the conference is “Responsive Evaluation: For Government, For Inclusion, For the Future.” The theme underscores the importance of sharing progress and lessons learned in strengthening national evaluation systems, their role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other development goals, and how new technologies and approaches in evaluation can facilitate the achievement of these goals.

The 2024 NEC Conference sessions will be organized around three intersecting strands:

• National Evaluation Systems: Building strong evaluation systems ensuring use
• Inclusive Evaluation Systems: Including citizens’ voice, alternative knowledge, evaluating complexity
• Future-driven Systems and Approaches: Adapting technology, innovative approaches, synthesis and knowledge management

Visit the conference page for more information.

The National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) Conference is an in-person conference held biannually in collaboration with the United Nations Independent Evaluation Office (UNDP IEO). The conference brings together government representatives working on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) from all over the world to facilitate South-to-South peer learning and experience exchange. It provides a platform for M&E stakeholders to build connections, share insights, and explore themes centered around principles of good governance, evidence-based decision-making, and improved performance management. 

In October 2022, the NEC Conference in Turin, Italy, concluded with the unanimous agreement on the Turin Agenda. The agenda called for the strengthening of partnerships and increased efforts to develop national evaluation systems that are resilient, agile, flexible, adaptable, and forward-looking. The Turin Agenda highlighted the importance of gender equality, social inclusion, and the meaningful integration of environmental sustainability and climate change considerations into evaluation processes. 

Building on the Turin Agenda and the discussions from the 2022 NEC Conference, the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI) and UNDP IEO have been hosting a series of webinars to explore relevant topics dedicated to advancing the development of national M&E systems.

The first webinar focused on gender-responsive and climate-informed evaluation systems. The second webinar focused on the inclusion of youth in national evaluation processes and the challenges associated with evaluating and strengthening national evaluation systems in crisis settings.