Building Capacity for Sustainability-Inclusive Evaluations in Colombia

In August 2024, the National Planning Department of Colombia (DNP) hosted a series of workshops as part of the first Footprint Evaluation in the country. DNP is leading the pilot evaluation, with support from the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), a partner of the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI), together with the German Evaluation Institute, and the Footprint Evaluation Initiative. Footprint Evaluation is an ongoing collaborative effort to curate and co-create knowledge about methods and approaches that can be used to understand the environmental sustainability of policies and programs.

The workshops, led by Andy Rowe and Thomaz Chianca from the Footprint Evaluation Initiative, along with Anna Warnholz from DEval, aimed to strengthen local capacity for conducting sustainability-inclusive evaluations. The sessions provided valuable insights into integrating sustainability into public policy and evaluation practices. 

One of the important lessons from the workshops was the dual capacity-building approach, which targeted both commissioners from DNP and ministries, including service providers from consultancy firms and academia. This approach ensured that each group could address their unique challenges while collaboratively developing practical strategies for sustainability-inclusive evaluations.

A key takeaway was that incorporating environmental sustainability into evaluations is not as daunting as initially perceived; rather, it can be seamlessly integrated into daily processes. As one participant noted, "Sustainability is not a distant, complex, and costly issue in the evaluation of public policies. It is possible to carry out processes from this perspective in our daily evaluation work." 

Following the workshops in August, Mr. Rowe and Ms. Warnholz conducted another workshop in September at Deval’s offices in Bonn, followed by additional sessions at the 2024 National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) Conference in Beijing in October.

Looking ahead, the drive from these workshops will continue with further events focused on the practical aspects of sustainability-inclusive evaluations. These initiatives will continue to build on the foundations laid in Colombia, reinforcing the importance of integrating sustainability into policymaking and evaluation for long-term, sustainable development.