Glocal 2025 in Latin America and the Caribbean: Strengthening Evaluation Systems through Regional Collaboration
With contributions from 16 countries, Latin America and the Caribbean played a leading role in the 10th edition of Glocal Evaluation Week. Originally launched in Mexico a decade ago, the initiative has grown into a global platform, this year featuring 372 events worldwide. Of these, 138 were held in the region.
Ecuador stood out among participants, hosting 13 events—9 of them led by the National Secretariat for Planning—with over 2,800 attendees in hybrid and in-person formats. The opening event, Evaluation Processes with a Gender Perspective, was co-organized with UN Women and featured the launch of a practical guide with tools to incorporate this approach into evaluations.
The regional launch of Glocal Evaluation Week 2025, themed “The Value of Evidence: Strengthening Monitoring and Evaluation Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean”, was launched by the Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results Latin America and the Caribbean (CLEAR-LAC), and for Lusophone Africa and Brazil (CLEAR-LAB)—both implementing partners of the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI)—on May 30. The opening session featured keynote speaker Andrea Sánchez, Ecuador’s Undersecretary for Planning, who presented the country’s evaluation system and emphasized the importance of making evaluation part of institutional culture and not just a technical process.
A panel of experts responded to her presentation, offering perspectives on budgeting, learning, and transparency. Speakers included Jozef Vaessen (Office of Evaluation and Oversight, Inter-American Development Bank (OVE), Jeanne Lafortune (J-PAL Latin America and the Caribbean, UC Chile), and Camila Soares (Institute for Applied Economic Research, Brazil).
This launch set the stage for Glocal events held from June 2 to 6, where a key theme was the strengthening of national evaluation systems. One highlight was a panel organized by OVE, titled From Coordination to Collaboration: Strengthening Evaluation Capacity in Latin America and the Caribbean. The session examined how evaluation capacity in the region has evolved, recognizing progress as well as persistent disparities among countries—and encouraging deeper collaboration among institutions working in this field.
OVE Communications and Capacity Development Consultant Emil Salim stressed the need for strategic coordination: “Many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are advancing in building evaluation systems—but disparities in capacity and technical support remain. As development partners, it’s essential we map out who is doing what, where, and with whom.”
GEI Program Manager Dugan Fraser highlighted how the initiative bridges global knowledge and local action through the CLEAR centers: “GEI enables governments to align their agendas with global learning opportunities. Our work is about building two-way bridges.” CLEAR-LAC Executive Director Cristian Crespo echoed this, emphasizing a flexible and country-responsive approach: “Genuine collaboration starts with listening—understanding each country’s needs and co-designing from there.”
The Caribbean perspective was explored during the webinar, “Strengthening National Evaluation Systems for Effective Development in the Caribbean”, which highlighted the need to foster evaluation culture in Caribbean states. The Caribbean Development Bank outlined the region’s key challenges—including resource constraints and low institutional prioritization—and proposed integrating monitoring and evaluation (M&E) directly into project cycles to improve investment decision-making. Trinidad and Tobago’s government shared its experience institutionalizing M&E, underscoring the critical role of political will, strategic communication, and leadership.
Another standout event showcased Chile’s 30-year M&E journey in Thirty Years of Chile’s Monitoring and Evaluation System: Lessons Learned and Ongoing Challenges. The session also marked Chile’s entry into the National Evaluation Capacity Index (INCE), led by the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval) and the World Food Programme. Rodrigo Díaz, Head of Evaluation, Transparency, and Fiscal Productivity at Chile’s Budget Directorate, highlighted the broader value: “The most valuable part of the process was bringing together different government actors at the same table to talk about evaluation. Beyond the indicators, what INCE gives us is a shared roadmap and a common language to keep moving forward.”
Colombia also made a strong contribution with the event, “Country-led sustainability-inclusive evaluation: Colombia’s capacity development journey and a new application of rubrics methodology with the Footprint typology”. Organized by the National Department of Planning (DNP), the webinar explored Colombia’s progress in integrating sustainability into its country-led evaluations. The session featured a pilot initiative within the government’s information systems. Jeff Vargas, DNP’s Public Policy Evaluation Lead, noted: “Implementing an ecological footprint approach didn’t require additional funding—crucial for public evaluations often constrained by tight budgets.”
Civil society’s role in strengthening M&E was the focus of the session, “Civil Society and Philanthropy in Latin America and the Caribbean: Monitoring and Evaluation Systems”. Representatives from Fundación Luksic (Chile), Fundación Carvajal (Colombia), Monte de Piedad (Mexico), and Fundación Avina discussed how M&E can drive accountability and impact in civil society organizations. Ignacio Irarrázaval, Director of the Public Policy Center at UC Chile, emphasized evaluation’s transformative power: “Evaluation has a political function we often overlook—it shines a light on causes, mobilizes public interest, and legitimizes the work we do locally. It’s not just about measuring outcomes—it’s a tool to transform systems.”
Martha Kluttig, of CLEAR-LAC, who moderated the panel, added: “When evaluation becomes part of an organization’s culture, it transforms not just programs, but how we understand impact and make decisions in civil society.”
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 90 institutions contributed to Glocal Evaluation Week 2025. Together, these events illustrate the region’s growing commitment to strengthening national, regional, and global M&E ecosystems.