On 2 June 2022, from 15.00 to 16.15 CEST, the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) held a webinar on “The 2022 IFAD Evaluation Manual as a new tool for rural development practitioners”. The event, which was organized as part of the gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2022, presented the new IFAD Evaluation Manual launched by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in 2022.

The event brought together representatives of international organizations, governments of developing countries and evaluation practitioners to share and generate insight on:

•             translating key 2030 Agenda concepts into evaluation practice;

•             adapting evaluation criteria and standards to rural poverty alleviation;

•             the needs of and opportunities for rural development and evaluation practitioners and institutional stakeholders.

The webinar was introduced by Indran A. Naidoo, Director, IOE. Nigel Brett, Director, Operational Policy and Results Division (OPR), IFAD, delivered remarks on behalf of Donal Brown, Associate Vice President, Programme Management Department, IFAD.

A presentation on the new Evaluation Manual was then delivered by Fabrizio Felloni, Deputy Director, IOE, and Simona Somma, Evaluation Specialist, IOE.

After this, Roxanna Samii, Communication and Social Media Strategist, moderated a lively panel discussion. The panellists were: Paula Silva Villanueva, Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Climate Resilience and International Development and Visiting Professor, University of Deusto, Spain; Chitra Desphande, Lead Advisor, Results and Resources, OPR, IFAD; Alisher Shukurov, Senior Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan and Director of the International Center for Food and Agriculture, Strategic Development and Research; Megan Kennedy-Chouane, Head of the Evaluation Unit, OECD-DAC Development Co-operation Directorate; and Maya Vijayaraghavan, Methods Advisor, Independent Evaluation Department, Asian Development Bank.

After the panel discussion, a Q&A session took place with the audience, and which provided an opportunity to further generate incisive insight.

In closing the event, remarks were delivered by Sara Savastano, Director, Research and Impact Assessment Division, IFAD, and Indran Naidoo, Director, IOE.

The event drew over 64 participants.

To watch the recording of the webinar, click here.

Further details are also available on the gLOCAL 2022 event webpage.