The Independent Evalution Group (IEG) is a leader in the evaluation ecosystem. Much of this leadership comes through efforts to strengthen the practice of evaluation and improve education opportunities for evaluators.

The Global Evaluation Initiative and Partners

The Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI) continued its successful engagement in 23 countries in fiscal year (FY)23, providing support for the strengthening of 26 national and subnational monitoring and evaluation systems. This support included advisory and technical services, training and professional development, and knowledge exchange delivered in collaboration with GEI implementing partners, CLEAR (the Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results), ENAP (École nationale d’administration publique), and IPDET (the International Program for Development Evaluation Training).

Country engagement activities included support for monitoring and evaluation systems analysis diagnostics (which inform a strategy to strengthen national monitoring and evaluation systems) in Brazil, Colombia, and the Solomon Islands; a pilot country-led rapid evaluation presented to stakeholders in Mozambique; road maps prepared to strengthen the national evaluation systems in Madagascar and Jamaica; and an impact evaluation guide launched in Cabo Verde.

In addition, GEI established a new CLEAR for Pakistan and Central Asia in FY23 and will launch a new CLEAR for Latin America and the Caribbean in FY24.

The overlapping crises of recent years have diminished gains related to gender and inclusion, increased environmental pressures on marginalized populations, and pushed more people into instability. In response, GEI deepened its commitment to mainstreaming gender, inclusion, and climate change considerations across all its activities. For example, the GEI Global Team began a new collaboration with the Climate Investment Funds and partnered with Global Affairs Canada to launch the two-year Feminist Innovation in Monitoring and Evaluation project. In addition, United Nations Women and EvalGender+ have joined as associate partners, bringing relevant technical skills and important perspectives to the GEI network.

In October 2022, GEI cohosted the National Evaluation Capacities Conference (NEC) with the United Nations Development Programme’s Independent Evaluation Office, attracting 300 participants from 100 countries. The conference produced the Turin Agenda—a collective agreement for action on how to strengthen national evaluation systems. Six months later, GEI hosted a follow-up event, NEC+6, which focused on what gender- and climate-responsive evaluation systems look like as emphasized by the Turin Agenda.

The GEI network once again successfully delivered its three flagship training programs. The École nationale d’administration publique delivered the TAQYEEM (online) course in Arabic and PIFED (International Training Program in Development Evaluation) in French. The International Program for Development Evaluation Training delivered its signature training course in English both on-site and online, awarding 56 scholarships. In addition to the flagship training programs, the CLEAR global network delivered a variety of professional development and training activities. In total, over 3,000 people deepened their knowledge and gained more skills in monitoring and evaluation in FY23.

gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2023, a unique knowledge-sharing event connecting a global community of people across sectors and regions, saw an estimated 20,000 participants, with more than 300 events hosted in 53 countries around the globe. The 2023 theme—The Future of M&E: Culture, Context, and Collaboration—resonated with many and helped inspire and energize the global monitoring and evaluation community.

Finally, the GEI Global Team launched the first-of-its-kind Global Directory of Academic Programs in Evaluation, hosted on GEI’s BetterEvaluation knowledge platform. The directory has received over 20,000 views since its launch in April 2023.

Knowledge Sharing with the Private Sector

IEG is working to strengthen its collaboration with private sector counterparts; in FY23, there was enhanced participation in joint engagements, both in terms of the depth and the format, including thematic evaluations, trainings, and learning events. For example, the first joint International Finance Corporation (IFC)–Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency learning event was organized for the health sector in Türkiye. The learning event featured evaluations about the hospitals in the Turkish Health Public-Private Partnership Program, which was jointly supported by IFC and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. Teams from both organizations reflected on their experiences at the program and project level. New technology was also used to provide more insights to IFC about the effects of climate change on infrastructure in the Infrastructure Sector Highlights.

As another example, an IFC Strategy Network Learning Event was jointly organized in May 2023 to discuss the IEG thematic evaluation of IFC’s approach to additionality in middle-income countries. The dialogue with the IEG evaluation team and IFC management shared insights and lessons from the IEG evaluation and discussed their operational application using IFC business examples.