The 2019 IDEAS Global Assembly took place in Prague, Czech Republic, from 2 to 4 October 2019 under the auspices of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and in collaboration with the Czech Evaluation Society.

The theme of the 2019 IDEASGA is “Evaluation for Transformative Change” and it addresses the enormous challenge the global community is facing to ensure significant changes for social, economic and environmental sustainability in development, as illustrated in the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda of the UN.

On Thursday 3 October, Mr Oscar Garcia, Director of IOE, delivered a keynote address: “Towards transformative change: evaluation in rural development”.

On the same day, there was a ceremony for a biennial award, which is jointly organized by the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE), the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank Group, and the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS). The award recognizes outstanding evaluations of development interventions that promote or result in transformational change and are linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Mr Garcia, with the support of Mr Prashanth Kotturi, Evaluation Analyst, IOE, also presented the new book "Information and Communication Technologies for Development Evaluation Routledge studies in Development Economics". The book was edited by Mr Garcia and Prashanth Kotturi, and presents important contributions made by a team of expert practitioners as the result of an international conference held in IFAD in 2017 on the topic.

Mr Fabrizio Felloni, Deputy Director, IOE, participated in the panel “Supporting value chain development for transformational change in poverty reduction. The experience of IFAD and the African Development Bank”.

Ms Chitra Deshpande, Senior Evaluator, IOE, took part in the session “Meta-analysis and synthesis” and delivered the following presentation: “How to reach the rural poor and leave no one behind - Lessons from a meta-analysis on poverty targeting”.

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