The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) has organized a learning event on the 2024 thematic evaluation on IFAD’s support to gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE).

The event, which was hybrid, was divided into two sessions. The first session focused on the key findings and recommendations of the thematic evaluation and the management actions in response to the evaluation. The second session was organized around a panel discussion aimed at guiding future interventions to accelerate IFAD’s work on GEWE. During the event, a discussion panel paved the way towards exploration of three overarching themes: (1) improving GEWE design, implementation and reporting; (2) strategic partnerships to scale up impact and leverage capacities to work on gender; and (3) what a gender-transformative process looks like in the framework of IFAD programming. The panel discussants comprised IFAD staff.

The event was an important opportunity to share lessons and experiences on IFAD’s support to GEWE, and to circulate the key messages of the thematic evaluation report.

Dr Indran A. Naidoo, IOE Director, opened the learning event with welcome remarks and provided an introduction. In Session 1, Dr Mónica Lomeña-Gelis, IOE Senior Evaluation Officer, delivered a presentation on the key findings and recommendations of the evaluation. Thereafter, remarks were given by: Bettina Prato, Lead Policy and Technical Advisor to the Associate Vice-President, Department of Country Operations (DCO); Guoqi Wu, Associate Vice-President, Corporate Service Department; and Juan Carlos Mendoza Casadiegos – Director, Environment, Climate, Gender and Social Inclusion (ECG), all from IFAD.

Session 2 began with a panel discussion, moderated by Dr Naidoo, on the three overarching themes described above. The panellists, all from IFAD, were:

• Theme 1 – Kaushik Barua, Lead Portfolio Advisor, Asia and the Pacific Region Division, and Maine Astonitas, Senior Portfolio Advisor, Latin America and the Caribbean Division;
• Theme 2 – Sara Mbago-Bhunu, Regional Director, East and Southern Africa Division, and Beatrice Gerli, Senior Technical Specialist, coordinator of the Gender-transformative mechanism in the context of climate adaptation, ECG;
• Theme 3 – Philippe Remy, Country Director Tunisia, Libya, and Montenegro, Near East and North Africa Division, and Pascaline Barankeba, Country Director Sierra Leone-Liberia, West and Central Africa Division.

The panel discussion was followed by a productive Q&A session.

Thereafter, a summary and reflections on the next steps towards reviewing IFAD’s gender policy and action plan were provided by Loise Maina, Lead Technical Specialist, Gender and Social Inclusion, ECG.

The event was closed by concluding remarks delivered by Dr Naidoo.

The learning event was attended by over 88 participants.

The event material will be made available on this webpage in due course.