The Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) hosted a session and delivered presentations at the 2016 Asian Evaluation Week which was co-organized and sponsored by the Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Institute (China), and the Asian Development Bank's Independent Evaluation Department. The event was held on 5-8 September 2016 in Xi’an, Shaanxi, China.

This is the first such event held in Asia to promote the exchange and synthesis of ideas on the latest and practicable thinking on evaluation. The event was well attended, gathering around 150 participants from governments of a dozen countries from Asia and the Pacific; heads and senior staff of evaluation units of multilateral development banks and United Nations agencies; and international evaluation experts. The Asian Evaluation Week stretched over four days, with a mix of plenary sessions and smaller group sessions.

Mr Michael Carbon, IOE Senior Evaluation Officer and Mr Hansdeep Khaira, IOE Evaluation Officer, hosted a session on smallholder farmer organizations and access to markets – drawing lessons from the IOE evaluation syntheses on Smallholder Access to Markets and IFAD’s Engagement with Cooperatives. The session focused on learning about the main lessons emerging from IFAD-funded projects aimed at supporting smallholder farmer organizations and connecting smallholder farmers to markets. In addition, participants discussed the purpose and value-added of evaluation synthesis reports, as well as the main steps in preparing them.

In a session hosted by the Evaluation Office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Messrs. Carbon and Khaira delivered a presentation  on the challenges for evaluating SDG2 to enhance food security and sustainable agriculture policy “ (based on the conclusions from a technical seminar jointly organized by the evaluation offices of CGIAR, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, IFAD and the World Food Programme in late 2015 in Rome). The session focused on how the evaluation process and results contribute to knowledge on food security and changes in policy and governance.

The session hosted by International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3IE) regarding the evaluation impact in the environment sector, Mr Carbon delivered a presentation which focused on the use of Theory of Change for assessing the likelihood of environmental impact, and drew attention to the risks that a Theory of Change approach doesn't capture the trade-offs (unintended negative effects) of an environment-focused intervention on growth or social equity.