The National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) Conference is a biennial event convened by the UNDP Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) in collaboration with the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI). Since 2009, it has brought together governments, evaluation practitioners, and development partners to exchange experiences and strengthen national evaluation systems.
2024 NEC Conference in Beijing
The 2024 NEC Conference, held from October 14–18 in Yanqing District, Beijing, was co-hosted by the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA). With the theme “Responsive Evaluation: For Government, For Inclusion, For the Future”, the conference focused on the role of evaluation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and how inclusive approaches and new technologies can support that mission.
Sessions were organized around three core 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
Beijing Action Plan for 2030
The conference concluded with the adoption of the Beijing Action Plan for 2030 for 2030—an ambitious roadmap for strengthening national evaluation systems globally. It builds on the Turin Agenda and reinforces global commitments to inclusive, effective, and future-ready evaluation systems.
2022 NEC Conference in Turin
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, 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 explored what gender-responsive and climate-informed evaluation systems look like. 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.