A national round-table workshop for the India Country Programme Evaluation (CPE) took place in New Delhi on 12 May 2016, as a final step in the evaluation process. The workshop was co-organized by the Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of India and the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE). The Chief Guest was Mr Shobhana K. Pattanayak, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.  Participants included representatives from the Government, multilateral and bilateral development organizations, project management staff of IFAD-funded projects, academic and research institutions, private sector and foundations, non-governmental organizations, selected resource persons. The IFAD delegation included the AVP SKD, IOE Director, APR Lead Portfolio Adviser, IOE lead evaluator for the CPE, the CPM for India, the PMD Portfolio Officer and staff from the India ICO.

Prior to the workshop, the IFAD delegation from Rome undertook a field visit on 9 May 2016 to two IFAD-supported projects: Livelihoods and Access to Markets Project and North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project for Upland Areas, Phase II. The visit offered the IFAD delegation an opportunity to directly hold discussions with beneficiaries and their groups, project staff, state government officials and others, as well as to see project activities on the ground.

In terms of next steps, the Government of India and IFAD Management will sign an Agreement at Completion Point (ACP), which will include a summary of the main CPE findings and recommendations. The ACP will capture the Government's and IFAD's commitment to adopt and implementation the CPE recommendations with specific timeframes. The India CPE report will be discussed in the Evaluation Committee in October 2016.

The field visit and workshop were widely covered by the Indian media.

Field visit

Workshop