Regional Impact Stories

The Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI) builds on the work of its evaluation capacity development (ECD) partners, who are established ECD providers with large portfolios of ongoing programs and initiatives. These programs are now being expanded under GEI.

The Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR), a core GEI implementation partner, has a global presence through six regional centers and works with governments in Africa, South Asia, East Asia, the Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean to strengthen monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks and capacities.
Two international training programs, the International Program for Development Evaluation and Training (IPDET) and the Programme international de formation en évaluation du développement (PIFED) will continue building the capacity of the next generation of global evaluation professionals under GEI.
The biennial National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) Conference, hosted by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will continue with GEI to convene the international evaluation community, including government officials engaged with evaluation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These programs will work closely with World Bank Group and UNDP teams around the world.

Explore what current activities and projects have been conducted through the partnership, under GEI’s four lines of work.

Develop a Culture of Evidence-Informed Decision-Making

GEI partners promote the use of evidence in decision-making through a range of activities such as the following:

In Brazil, CLEAR supported the State of Espírito Santo in Brazil in designing, developing, and institutionalizing its M&Esystem, following best practices
from other countries in the region.
In India, CLEAR has provided technical assistance to the Government of Tamil Nadu to strengthen the state’s evaluation and monitoring systems.
CLEAR swiftly responded to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by finding innovative solutions to the challenges posed by social distancing and travel restrictions to continue supporting national and state governments and other clients to make evidence-based decisions part of their pandemic responses. Read more about these innovations here, here, and here.

Strengthen a Cadre of Evaluators, M&E Specialists, and Other Evaluation Stakeholders

GEI partners provide a wide offering of new and innovative M&E trainings at the global, regional, national, and institutional levels. For example:

IPDET offers an annual on-site program in Bern, Switzerland, that includes a one-week core course on evaluation fundamentals and two weeks of advanced workshops. In addition, IPDET expanded its offerings to the virtual world in 2020. Some of its virtual offerings include eight comprehensive online workshops covering the latest in evaluation methodology such as “Blue Marble Evaluation,” “Monitoring and Evaluating the SDGs,” “Digital Analytics for Monitoring and Evaluations,” and more.
The Program in Rural M&E (PRiME) training focuses on M&E in the context of rural development. Since its launch in 2017, PRiME has been offered in three different languages across five continents. Thus far, this program has trained 164 people from 82 countries.
PIFED, taught in Quebec, Canada, is a French-language training program that meets the training, management, and development needs of francophone evaluators around the world. The program enables participants to learn key evaluation skills and capacities.
In Africa, the Development Evaluation Training Programme attracts participants from a range of African countries to attend the fundamentals and advanced tracks of the program, which takes place over two weeks in Johannesburg, South Africa. Past participants have highlighted the importance of context in evaluation and proposed a “Made in Africa” competition to showcase local approaches to evaluation.

Generate M&E Knowledge

GEI partners continue to innovate in the creation of new research, guidelines, and tools. For example:

In Africa, CLEAR produced a guide for government officials who are involved in developing voluntary national reviews (VNRs) of country performance against the SDGs.
In Latin America, CLEAR has produced multiple knowledge products generated from their programmatic work, including a study on national evaluation systems in Latin America, now a well-known reference for researchers and other M&E stakeholders in the region.

Share M&E Knowledge

GEI partners play a vital role in disseminating knowledge produced by our partners and other key actors in the field of M&E. This work includes important convenings that bring together leaders, government officials, civil society organizations, and others to learn from each other and share best practices, lessons, and innovations. Some notable examples include the following:

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the UNDP held the sixth NEC Conference in Hurghada, Arab Republic of Egypt, in October 2019. This conference brought together over 500 participants from more than 100 countries to discuss the theme ‘“Leaving No One Behind: Evaluation for 2030’.”
The 2020 gLOCAL Evaluation Week, a global M&E knowledge-sharing event organized by the CLEAR initiative, occurred virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges, the 2020 gLOCAL Evaluation Week offered over 250 events hosted by 188 institutions in 40 countries.