The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) participated in the 2017 Asian Evaluation Week (AEW), co-sponsored by the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Finance; Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Institute; and Asian Development Bank Independent Evaluation Department, held from 4 to 8 September 2017 in Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China.

The theme of the 2017 AEW was “Evaluation for Policymaking.” with special focus on inclusive growth. The AEW demonstrated how evaluation findings can help or get into the policy-making process, the practices and approaches that support this, and examples of influential evaluations that showcase how evaluation findings support policies.

Mr Oscar A. Garcia, Director of IOE, hosted a session on how can the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in evaluation strengthen the evidence base for policymaking? Mr Garcia presented the main conclusions emerging from the ICT4Eval international conference hosted by IFAD in Rome on 6-7 June 2017. He presented some of the latest innovative approaches and best practices using ICTs in evaluation data collection, analysis and dissemination of results, highlighting their current and potential use. He also reflected upon the limitations and risks of the use of ICTs in evaluation, including methodological and ethical considerations.

Ms Johanna Pennarz, Lead Evaluation Officer, IOE, chaired the session on no one left behind – how evaluation can contribute to an inclusive rural transformation. The session had a dual purpose: to introduce evaluation syntheses as a product to inform decision-making; and to present key findings from selected evaluation studies under the theme “no one left behind”. Ms Pennarz made the introductory presentation on main policy lessons learned from three evaluation synthesis studies on gender, ethnic minorities and pastoralists, prepared by IOE.  Adrian Marbaniang from the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project in India, and Jerry Pacturan from IFAD-Philippines presented case studies from IFAD country programme evalautions.

In the session on joint evaluation - Building Partnerships through Joint Evaluation: ADB and IFAD Experience, Ms Pennarz also joint a panel with on the joint evaluation of the Northern Region Livestock Development Project evaluation in Lao. The panel included representatives from the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic and the Independent Evaluation Department of the Asian Development Bank. The session highlighted the role of joint evaluations within a broader partnership approach. It discussed the methodological challenges of the joint evaluations process and the opportunities it provided for capacity building and knowledge sharing. The Government of Lao much appreciated the joint nature of this evaluation.