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) are pleased to announce the Evaluating Development Interventions for Transformational Change Award competition.

This biennial award will recognize outstanding evaluations of development interventions that promote or result in transformational change and are explicitly linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The award is in recognition of the growing international understanding that transformational change is needed for our societies, economies and our relationship with the environment to become sustainable. On many fronts the world needs transformational change to be able to reach the aspirations expressed in the SDGs and the Paris Agreement: a world free of poverty; leaving no one behind; and ensuring a prosperous and equitable future in diverse and inclusive societies, with economies that increase wealth but not while undermining our food, clean air and living circumstances, with a climate and biodiversity that safeguards the future of humankind.

A transformational change is one that reshapes models, policies, structures, practices, culture and management. Evaluations can contribute to transformational change in many ways. They provide evaluative evidence on whether changes are truly transformational, leading to systems changes in our societies, economies and the way these interact with our environment. Their design may focus on key aspects of change that need to be understood to achieve further progress. Innovative elements in these evaluations may uncover new areas of evidence and insight. Influential evaluations may provide inspiration for overcoming barriers to change, actively engage with stakeholders and shift societal and institutional debates in new directions to promote change. The roles of evaluations in transformational change may be manifold, and the award competition is open to all credible, innovative and influential evaluations.

The award competition will have a total prize money of US$15,000. The inaugural winners will be announced at the 2019 IDEAS Global Assembly, which will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, between 2 - 4 October 2019. The event focuses on Evaluation for Transformative Change: Bringing experiences of the Global South to the Global North and includes the Third International Conference on Evaluating Environment and Development.

Competition Details

Who can nominate:

Nominations may be submitted by evaluators or evaluation teams from or commissioned by multilateral and bilateral organizations, not-for-profit organizations (e.g., NGOs, foundations), academic institutions, private sector, or public sector organizations.

Evaluations cannot be nominated by commissioners or by the institutions that mandated these evaluations. Furthermore, staff of IOE IFAD, IEG World Bank Group and the Board of IDEAS cannot participate in this Award Competition due to conflict of interest.

Publication

Nominated evaluations must be published and publicly available, to assure the ability to make them public and available in the Award electronic library.

Language

Evaluations must be written in English.

Date of the evaluation

Evaluations can be from 2015 or later, when the SDGs and the Paris Agreement were approved.

Award categories

The Award will recognize winners and runners-up in three categories:

1. Credibility: Credibility is grounded on independence, impartiality and a rigorous methodology. Key elements of credibility include transparent evaluation processes, strength of the evidence base, inclusive approaches involving relevant stakeholders and robust quality assurance;
2. Innovation: The novelty and originality of the scope and/or conceptual/methodological approach of the evaluation;
3. Influence: The (potential) contribution of the evaluation to transformational change towards the SDGs.

Judging Panel and selection criteria

The Judging Panel will be an independent panel of evaluation experts with knowledge of transformational change and of the SDGs. The Judging Panel will review submissions and select a winner and two runners-up in each award category. The selection criteria will include the three aspects outlined above (credibility, innovation and influence) as well as additional ones that will be further refined by the Judging Panel:

• Design: Clear planning of the evaluation and its adequacy to address transformational change and the SDGs. Design of approach and methodology, specific analytical tools, data gathering and analysis, and quality assurance.
• Process: Clear identification of the phases of the evaluation and their description – planning, implementation, analysis, due process with stakeholders and quality assurance, completion, and interactions on the conclusions and recommendations.
• Presentation: Overall presentational aspects of the report – including readability and focus on key issues, infographics, clarifying data, analysis and evaluative findings.
• Dissemination: Implementation of the dissemination strategy/plan and outreach to target audiences (and beyond). Evidence of feedback that may be transformational to the evaluand itself and to future evaluations.

Prize

The first-place winner in each category will receive a monetary award of US$ 5,000 and a certificate and will be invited to write a chapter in an IDEAS publication after the Global Assembly. Second- and third-place runners-up in each category will receive a trophy or certificate. Winners will be invited to Prague to take part in the 2019 Global Assembly and Award Ceremony.

Deadline for Nominations: 31 July 2019

The announcement of winners and runners-up will be made in early September 2019.

Submit Nomination by sending the form to [email protected]