In collaboration with EvalPartners and Parliamentarians’ Forum

Celebrating the International Year of Evaluation

CoE-SA announces

CoE Conclave 2015

Building Bridges: Use of evaluation for decision making and policy influence

23 -27November, 2015

Yak and Yeti Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal

The Community of Evaluators – South Asia (CoE-SA) is pleased to announce the 3rd Evaluation Conclave to be held at the Yak and Yeti Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal from 23 to 27 November, 2015 (both days inclusive).Conclave 2015 is a special event being co-organized with EvalPartners and the Parliamentarians’ Forum during the Global Evaluation Week, as a culmination of, and celebrating the International Year of Evaluation (EvalYear).

This will be the first time ever that four evaluation communities – regional (represented by the Community of Evaluators - South Asia), global (represented by EvalPartners),policy makers including Parliamentarians from all over the world (represented by Parliamentarians’ Forum) and national (represented by Community of Evaluators, Nepal), will meet to discuss how to ensure “Evaluation is fit for purpose”.

The Community of Evaluators – South Asia has organised two successful Evaluation Conclaves in 2010 and in 2013 in New Delhi and in Kathmandu, respectively. The Conclaves have come to be recognized as the flagshipevent of CoE-SA, and have provided numerous benefits to its members: a chance to network and partner with evaluation societies and experts from across the globe; a platform for evaluators from South Asia to meet each other and share their work, and as an opportunity to build capacity in evaluation theory and practice.

CoE-SA will bring the best international, regional and national resource persons to the Conclave, as was done in the last two Conclaves.

I.Theme

The primary theme for the collaborative event ‘Building bridges: Use of Evaluation for decision making and policy influence’ is to bring state and non-state actors together on the same platform to facilitate transformative changes in policy and practice for developing countries around the world as we move into post-MDG world. Globally, countries are faced with enormous problems of poverty, inequity, gender violence and conflict, and the need for sustainable development has become more critical than ever. While historically, civil society and donors have largely driven building evaluation skills, state and non-state actors are increasingly recognizing the need to evaluate government- supported national, state and local social sector programmes so that decisions for policy and practice are made on credible evidence.

In South Asia, we see this clearly. In India, evaluation policies are being instituted to undertake impartial and objective assessment of the various public programmes and improve the effectiveness of public interventions. Sri Lanka incorporates evaluation of its public sector programmes particularly through the Ministry of Plan Implementation. Nepal and Bangladesh have also indicated their interest by mobilizingparliamentarians in evaluation. Pakistan and Bhutan have shown interest in communities of evaluators; Pakistan has instituted a Community of Evaluators and Bhutan is on its way to do so. This is an opportune time to bring civil society and state together to ensure that evaluations contribute to changes in policy and practice and ensure the voices of those affected by the evaluations are heard and respected.

Secondly, and as importantly, the use of innovative methods in evaluations have become increasingly important and are required to inform strategies and policies in traditional and non-traditional sectors to ensure that they are able to inform use in a credible and relevant manner. The importance of innovative methods is especially recognized in sectors such as education, health, gender violence, water and sanitation, climate change, advocacy and governance. Conclave 2015 will also focus on developing and show-casing these methodologies.

Evaluation Conclave 2015 involving state and non-state actors will place centre stage issues that have underpinned earlier Conclaves and that resonate with the needs of the region and the global community overall. Violence, volatility, conflict and globalization have influenced the context in which evaluations are taking place. These will be additional sub-themes of the Conclave.

The key themes of the Conclave 2015 will be use, participation, equity, and gender.

a)How can government, civil society, donors and evaluation fora foster accountability, credibility and transparency? How can donors and implementing partners positively support local, national, or regional and international evaluation policy and practice?

b)What is the current progress on building skills on evaluation in the government, civil institutions (including grassroots and indigenous civil institutions) and academia? What needs to be strengthened and how?

c)What should the State’s role be in setting standards of evaluation? How can communities of practice help foster these? How can evaluations of state programmes be made more credible and transparent? How can state and non-state actors support building skills on evaluation?

d)What innovative evaluation methods make them credible, usable and relevant?

e)What are illustrative evaluations in various sectors such as health systems strengthening, climate change, education, advocacy, water and sanitation, and governance that are relevant, innovative, credible, and promote use?

f)How can grassroots organizations and citizen movements work with Governments for inclusive, equitable and credible evaluations?

g)What lessons can the global community provide in multi-stakeholder, complex evaluations? What innovations in evaluation practice are available for learning and sharing?

h)What are the factors that influence the use of evaluations by decision makers? What can be done to enhance use of evaluations?

i)How can data be made available and shared for learning? What are the blocks and opportunities available for data sharing? How do we ensure that data systems address gender and other types of inequity around caste, class and other socio-economic divides?

j)How equitable and gender-sensitive are evaluations in the region? What is the role of feminist evaluation and how can it be integrated in policy review and development? How do we increase accountability from governments and civil society for the most vulnerable groups and ensure evaluation is guided by values of equity and gender responsiveness?

II. Location and the Structure of the Event

The joint event will be held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 23-27 November, 2015 as follows:

  • Two days for pre-conclave workshops (on 23-24 November at the Yak and Yeti Hotel): These professional workshops will focus on building skills on evaluation methodologies;
  • Half-day celebration organized by EvalPartners, CoE-SA, CoE-Nepal and Parliamentarians’ Forum in the Parliament of Nepal, launch of the EvalPartner’s five-year strategy, and the launch of CoE Conclave (on 25 November 2015 at the Parliament of Nepal).
  • Two days for Conclave panel presentations and round-tables (on 26-27 November at the Yak and Yeti Hotel) focussing on sharing experiences on evaluations. Call for Papers for the Conclave will be made soon on this website.

Online registration will open on 1 March 2015 at this website.

Kindly address any inquiries to:

Ranjith Mahindapala, Programme Coordinator, CoE-SA: <>

Mallika Samarayanake, President CoE-SA Board: < >

Sonal Zaveri, Secretary, CoE-SA Board:<>

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