EES Conference Maastricht 28 September 2016 (17:00 - 18:30) How evaluators can become agents of change: opportunities and challenges arising from the sustainable development goals (SDG) agenda EES Conference Maastricht 28 September 2016 (17:00 - 18:30)

Background Several initiatives to highlight importance of evaluation within the 2030 Agenda Strengthening national evaluation capacities and setting national evaluation agendas e.g. EVALSDGs, Bangkok Declaration, in October 2015, Global Evaluation Agenda 2016-2020, in November 2015 Technical seminar on SDG2 evaluability organised by the evaluation offices of the Rome-based Agencies (November 2015)

The New Agenda up to 2030 SDG agenda transformative – offers opportunities and new Theories of Change Growth, prosperity and sustainability - three dimensions embedded in the SDGs SDGs – dynamic and interconnected Strong focus on equity and social justice – requires granular data and analysis Ownership at country level – requires commitment and capacity to implement; considering the political economy of evaluation

Complexity and pluralism SDGs are aspirational, provide normative framework (not planning framework) SDGs are country-owned; different role for international partners SDGs are multi-sectoral, require multi-stakeholder collaboration for implementation Complexity underpins pluralism Evaluation to be adaptive, to evolve and accommodate complexity Opportunities for collective learning; being accountable for learning as well as for results

Indicators and data (SDG2) Three problems with indicators (J. K. Sundaram): What we cannot measure also matters Agreement has to be followed by implementation Poor countries less engaged in discussion of indicators Global data architecture - uneven availability of data between countries Indicators concerned about food supply, less on food availability Data gaps on acute malnutrition and nutritional status of special groups Granular data to monitor vulnerable populations and equitable access to food (e.g. migrants, displaced persons, ethnic minorities)

Data systems M&E information – level of granularity needed for decision making within the diversity of relevant contexts Data systems often politicized – measuring access to food potentially controversial Agricultural statistics suffer from limited funding, limited capacity, lack of consistency – and lack of political and institutional commitment New solutions include geo-referencing, remote sensing, open source software, mobile technology, crowdsourcing

A new role for evaluation Evaluation has to inform implementation of the SDG agenda Evaluation to become a politically engaged and focused on knowledge Evaluation to address rights rather than results -communicate knowledge rather than evidence (I.C. Davies)

Implications for IFAD Engagement in Evaluation Capacity Development (e.g. Ethiopia, China) Increased role of “self-evaluation” (Government) (e.g. Egypt) Potential tension between different evaluation agendas, standards and audiences Use of national data limited by availability and quality

Topics for further discussion Challenges of politicised data systems Look at both successes and failures Usefulness and timeliness of evaluations “Big data” to address existing data gaps? External validity vs contextual relevance Mainstreaming principles of democratic evaluation