Global Evaluation Initiative - World Bank

GEI's conducted activities in 3 main outcome areas with the main objective to improve M&E frameworks and use in supporting developing countries for better evidence informed policy making. GEI conducted its programme acitivties through 5 CLEAR centers (Center for Learning on Evaluation and Results) with Anglophone Africa Center in Johannesburg Francophone Africa Center in Dakar, Senegal Lusophone Africa and Brazil Center in São Paulo, Brazil Latin America and the Caribbean Center in Santiago, Chile Pakistan and Central Asia Center in Lahore, Pakistan and South Asia Center in New Delhi, India. Key results for GEI's 2022 - 2023 operation are: i)Supported efforts to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems and capacities in 41 developing countries, with deeper engagement in 24 priority countries. From Madagascar to the Caribbean, Latin America to India and the Pacific Islands, GEI partners have worked closely with governments on diagnostics to identify what is working, plans for strengthening what is not, and efforts to support implementation of solutions. GEI uses global expertise with integrate local needs and perspectives in their support to partner countries. ii)Facilitated the delivery of training and professional development programs that build the capacity of M&E stakeholders, national agencies and their specialists. Their network has focused on expanding the reach of existing programs and supporting the creation of new ones. The new networks are planning for MENA region and Arabic speaking communities, as well as the Pacific. In 2022-23, 10.4k people trained through a range of GEI flagship global and regional training as well as customized training programs, learning, and professional development activities to equip government decision makers, evaluators, and other M&E stakeholders with the tools and skills required to understand the role of M&E and evidence in decision making to gather, analyze, and use evaluative knowledge to conduct evaluations and to better manage and use M&E systems. In total, GEI provided 68 trainings and knowledge events with global, regional, national and organizational reach with 10.400 participants from 113 countries, of which 47% were women in the reporting period. Technical assistance to country-led evaluations of national COVID19 policy responses was provided in three countries: Malawi, Ghana, and Burkina Faso. iii)Convened and engaged around the most important M&E topics, with more than 340 events held all over the world during gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2022, with over 20000 participants. The aim is supporting on-the-ground improvements in national M&E systems, while ensuring that effective approaches are shared and can be adapted to other countries contexts. Results from GEIs key areas of work are impressive with an outreach on global scale. In supporting evidence-based decision making in developing countries, they have been adapted to local and regional contexts to scale up collaboration with more than 40 governments, with deeper engagement in 24 priority countries to provide diagnostic tools and technical advisory services for improvements of monitoring, evaluation and evidence use that are best suited to each countrys context. GEI provided 21 countries with MESA (monitoring and evaluation system analysis) diagnostics in partnership with local stakeholders. GEI also helped strengthening the Capacities of Policymakers, Evaluators, and Other M&E Professionals through training on the use of evidence for policy makers and up-to-date M&E skills and capacities for evaluators and ME professionals. The trained beneficiaries were in Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific with 138 participants from 63 countries (in-person International Program for Development Evaluation Training IPDET program), and 31 participants from 7 different MENA fragile and conflict-affected countries (Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, and Yemen) attended a 3week long TAQYEEM course online (ENAP program). iv)GEI is also pioneering in creating a Global Platform for Local and Global M&E Knowledge to provide a) free access to knowledge on M&E and b) resources and guidance on how to develop, enhance and operate country M&E systems, along with a snapshot analysis of the state of national M&E systems in countries that are a priority to the network, and c) exchange of best practices and collaborate on knowledge gap. The Better Evaluation platform has now reached 1.29 million annual users who can get access to 450 evaluation approaches, tasks, methods and processes with 4000 specific resources. GEI has also begun to build cross-cutting issues into evaluation which reflects gender and inclusion, youth engagement and climate change. Pilot Footprint Evaluation project is being rolled out.

The GEIs objective is to improve monitoring and evaluation frameworks, capacity, and use in supported developing countries for improved evidence-informed policy making - to improve people lives. GEI expects to be a catalyzer, bringing together key actors and experts in the monitoring & evaluation field to help governments in developing countries place evidence at the heart of decision making. Robust M&E frameworks and capacities and incentives to use evidence and learnings are essential to effective public policy making. They enable institutions to assess the effectiveness of policy decisions and programs, monitor progress towards national goals and course-correct, as needed, to accelerate this progress. They also enhance public accountability for results and provide opportunities for dialogue between citizens and public institutions. Against this backdrop, GEI will aim to scale up the provision, quality, coordination, and impact of evaluation capacity development (ECD) services. ECD supports the establishment and strengthening of both monitoring and evaluation functions. ECD involves strengthening and sustaining both individuals and organizations to access, build, and implement evaluative knowledge and skills; design, implement, and manage effective evaluation processes and findings; use evaluations as a performance improvement tool; and foster the implementation of M&E knowledge and practices. GEI will aim to scale up ECD support to governments and other stakeholders (such as non-governmental organizations, academic bodies, etc.) across the globe by providing a platform for coordinating and leveraging the provision of M&E diagnostics and technical assistance. Through a range of capacity building measures, research and knowledge sharing the GEIs main expected outcomes include: 1. Better understanding and valorization by governments and other stakeholders in developing countries of the role of M&E in evidence-informed decision-making and increased willingness to use evaluative evidence for decision-making and adaptive management in policies and programs. 2. Better capacity of governments and other stakeholders in developing countries to conduct evaluations (tailored to national needs and priorities) and manage and use M&E frameworks to develop more relevant and effective policies and programs. 3. Better evidence resulting from M&E frameworks and quality evaluations made publicly available. 4. Better access by civil society and citizens in developing countries to evaluative evidence, leading to more effective citizen engagement in public policy. Ultimately, the GEIs Theory of Change highlights that these outcomes will contribute to more relevant and effective policies and programmes, which in turn contribute to partner countries achieving their national development goals and contributing to the SDGs.