The Ministry of Finance (MOF) of the Government of China and the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD (IOE) delivered a training on Evaluation of Agricultural and Rural Development Investments, at the Friendship Hotel in Beijing on 1 November 2013. The training session was opened by Mr Li Xinhai, Deputy Director-General, International Department, MOF, and Mr Feng Yong, Deputy Director-General, Foreign Economic Cooperation Centre, Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).

This training was the first of its kind in China in terms of evaluation in agricultural and rural development. It was initiated within the partnership framework of the recent MOF-IOE Statement of Intent in Evaluation Capacity Development. As agreed between the two partners, IOE designed the training content together with the agenda and invited international specialists and a guest speaker for the one-day training workshop. MOF provided the venue, training facilities, and invited participants from both Beijing and Provinces. The training activities were organized by the Foreign Economic Cooperation Centre, MOA. Please also refer to the Training Agenda contained in the Handbook.

The main objective of the training was to provide an induction course of evaluation in agricultural and rural development and share knowledge on IOE evaluation methodology and processes. The training modules included:

• Module 1: Introduction to development evaluation
• Module 2: Evaluation of Agricultural and Rural Poverty Alleviation Interventions
• Module 3: How to manage and conduct evaluations of ARD investments
• Module 4: A practical evaluation exercise
• Module 5: Wrap-up and practical suggestions for evaluations of ARD

The Workshop participants were government officials from the Ministries and Provincial Departments of Poverty Alleviation, Agriculture, Forestry, and Finance. MOF and MOA selected 66 participants among all the applications received for the training workshop. An anonymous survey was conducted at the end of the training, the survey results showed that the majority of the participants considered the training as Highly Satisfactory and Satisfactory, and they also expressed requests and interest in a continued and more advanced training.

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