Independent Office of Evaluation presented emerging findings on indigenous peoples' evaluation at the Indigenous Peoples' Forum - IOE
The second global Indigenous Peoples' Forum was convened at IFAD on 12 – 13 February 2015. A unique initiative within the United Nations system, the Forum institutionalizes IFAD's consultation and dialogue with indigenous peoples' representatives at the national, regional and international levels. This year, it focused on indigenous peoples' food systems and sustainable livelihoods, providing an opportunity for indigenous peoples and IFAD staff to analyse and learn from previous experiences, and further strengthen their collaboration for rural transformation.
| Oscar A. Garcia, IOE Director, opened the IOE session, and Fumiko Nakai , IOE Evaluation Officer, presented the key emerging findings of the evaluation synthesis report on IFAD's Engagement with indigenous peoples . ©IFAD/ A. Vincent |
On the agenda was a presentation and plenary discussion on the key emerging findings of the Evaluation Synthesis Report on IFAD's Engagement with Indigenous Peoples prepared by the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE).
Oscar A. Garcia, IOE Director, opened the IOE session explaining the main objectives of the evaluation synthesis i.e. to identify good practices and generate lessons, and to identify key issues for reflection and make recommendations for future IFAD operations to strengthen its engagement with indigenous peoples in the pursuit of a more inclusive and sustainable transformation of the rural sector.
Subsequently, Fumiko Nakai, IOE Evaluation Officer, presented emerging findings from the evaluation synthesis, with a focus on the key areas reviewed. These included targeting approaches, indigenous peoples' participation in projects and strategy development, empowerment, and support to policy engagement and advocacy.
The emerging findings indicate that considerable efforts and progress have been made at global level in terms of policy engagement and partnership development. At country/project level, while notable contributions have been made in some projects and countries (for example, access to land, empowerment, and influence on institutions and policies), in general there is still a scope for further strengthening IFAD's engagement with indigenous peoples and impact at field level. Amongst the issues for reflection put forward were the need for good diagnostic analysis in country strategy preparation stage and project designs, the importance of improved M&E at project level with disaggregated data and indicators relevant to indigenous peoples, as well as the need to enhance IFAD operational staff's understanding of indigenous peoples' issues and to enhance supervision and implementation support to projects with appropriate expertise.
