For the very first time, the four evaluation offices from the Rome-based agencies (RBAs), namely IFAD, FAO, WFP and CGIAR, issued a joint statement effective on 2 April 2013 which captures their collective commitment to systematically strengthen cooperation in evaluation.

The joint statement caters to strengthen collaboration in a number of areas, including joint evaluations on the ground, knowledge sharing, and peer reviews of important evaluations. To date, such collaboration includes, but is not limited to the following:

• sharing with the other RBA evaluation offices of IOE's consultants' database;
• participation of an IOE senior evaluation officer in a CGIAR appointment and promotion panel;
• participation of senior evaluators from FAO at selected IOE workshops and other events;
• participation by evaluators from the RBAs in the Core Learning Partnership of the CLE on the grants policy evaluation and attendance by the Head of CGIAR's independent evaluation office as peer reviewer of the grants policy evaluation report; and
• IOE and FAO Evaluation Office jointly undertaking the Evaluation Synthesis on Pastoralism. In 2014 similar collaborative activities are envisaged among the RBAs, including a training session for the RBA evaluators on techniques to assess gender outcomes.