The International Development Law Organization (IDLO) organized a seminar on evaluating results and impact of policy advocacy activities. The seminar took place on 29 March 2019 in Rome.

In the context of IDLO’s Strategic Plan and Results Framework, the seminar fostered knowledge sharing on measuring the effectiveness of policy and advocacy activities for championing the rule of law agenda with decision makers and mobilizing political will at all levels. Presenters and participants debated the importance and use of evaluations, research, learning, and knowledge sharing for effective rule of law implementation.

Ms Johanna Pennarz, Lead Evaluation Officer, IOE, delivered a presentation on "Evaluating policy engagement in IFAD", which presented lessons and insights from evaluation of policy engagement in IFAD. It started by discussing a generic theory of change, identifying the sphere of influence for IFAD's policy engagement. Partnerships are instrumental for influencing policy issues, as highlighted by the Evaluation Synthesis on Partnerships (2017). The evaluation synthesis on IFAD's engagement with indigenous peoples (2015) has highlighted some positive results from policy engagement at global level.

In addition to Ms Pennarz, other key speakers were Dr Isabelle Ioannides, Policy Analyst, European Parliament, and Dr Ilaria Bottigliero, Director of Policy, Research and Learning, IDLO.