Colombia Pilots Sustainability-Inclusive Evaluation to Advance Environmental Goals

As climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and deforestation pose increasing threats to development progress, integrating environmental sustainability into evaluation processes is becoming essential. Colombia is leading efforts to address this gap by piloting a new approach that systematically embeds ecological considerations into public policy evaluations. 

With support from the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), one of the partners of the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI), the Colombian National Planning Department (DNP) is implementing the first country-led sustainability-inclusive evaluation. The initiative is being carried out in collaboration with GEI and the Footprint Evaluation Initiative. 

Since early 2024, the team has been using a national evaluation of government IT systems as a pilot to test the practical application of this new approach. 

This effort not only aims to generate useful findings but also to strengthen national evaluation capacity. Insights from the process are expected to guide other governments interested in applying similar methods. 

The evaluation draws on the Footprint Evaluation approach, a framework developed by a global network of evaluators that integrates environmental sustainability into all types of evaluations. At the heart of this approach are two core concepts: the nexus concept and sustainability-inclusive key evaluation questions. 

The nexus concept helps evaluators understand how human and natural systems interact within a given intervention. It focuses attention on critical issues that can have both beneficial and harmful effects on the environment. 

Designed for broad applicability, sustainability-inclusive evaluation questions equip evaluators with tools to integrate environmental considerations early in the evaluation process, across all sectors and policy contexts. 

The accompanying infographics summarize the core principles of the Footprint Evaluation approach and were jointly developed by DEval, the Footprint Evaluation Initiative, and GEI. They are designed to support learning and encourage adoption of the approach beyond Colombia.