Technical seminar jointly organized by the evaluation offices of CGIAR, FAO, IFAD and WFP

The Third International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities held in São Paulo in October 2013 declared 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation (EvalYear). The aim of designating 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation is to advocate and promote evaluation and evidence-based policy making at international, regional, national and local levels.

In the context of the initiatives for the International Year of Evaluation, the evaluation offices of the Rome-based agencies, which include the CGIAR (formerly known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) jointly organized a technical seminar entitled “Enhancing the evaluability of Sustainable Development Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”, which took  place on 17-18 November 2015 at IFAD Headquarters, in Rome.

The seminar allowed  for broad discussions on the importance of thinking upfront on the evaluability of SDG2 and its implications for the evaluation functions in development organizations and to the monitoring and evaluation systems available at the country level. It also confirmed the importance of sustainable and inclusive agriculture and rural development in achieving the goals set for SDG2, and provided an opportunity to reflect on the SDGs in general and SDG2 in particular, its underlying indicators and targets, the implications for the development community and for the Rome-based agencies.