UPDATE: Starting preparations for PIIRs FY19

1. MEL Community of Practice Session Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPES)March 2019http://careglobalmel.careinternationalwikis.org/mel_community

2. UPDATE: Starting preparations for PIIRs FY19 • March: • Going back to the feedback to PIIRS FY18and fixing parts of the forms that did not work so well last year (e.g. radio buttons for resilience marker), prepopulating sections of the forms with FY18 data, updating text/wording, etc. • April:OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS UNTIL APRIL 19th! • Anything that would be new to the forms: possible new questions, new guidance (e.g. updated definitions of participants), possible new formulas to avoid data entry errors, etc. • Please make suggestions are as specific as possible (e.g. drafted questions instead of broad topics). • Important clarification here: We are building on the forms/tools used in FY18, so we may not be able to add everything that is suggested right away. However, with support of CARE USA, a simultaneous process towards a larger digitization of PIIRS will get started in the next months, and this will allow us to address more additions/improvements to both the tools and process. More on this will be communicated later. • Mid-May to Mid-June: • Testing the forms with a few countries. WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED? Any MEL training where we could have a PIIRS session testing the updated forms?). • Preparation of the Sharepoint site, instructions, training materials, etc.

3. AND NOW, TODAY´S TOPIC • What Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs) are • What they do (there are VOPEs in at least 136 countries!) • How they bring together evaluation practitioners with the objective of improving evaluation thinking and practice • Opportunities for CARE teams to connect with VOPEs in different countries/regions

4. The Amazing Global Growth of the Evaluation Profession A report of the mapping of evaluation organizations conducted by Jim Rugh for and EvalPartners and IOCE

5. What is EvalPartners? An international collaborative initiative with over 45 key partners

6. Purpose of the EvalPartners Initiative To promote collaboration among evaluation organizations (VOPEs) to strengthen Evaluation Capacity Development … including addressing the evaluation environment, i.e. policies, systems, demand for and use of evaluations.

7. What’s a VOPE? Voluntary Organization for Professional Evaluation I.e. formal associations or societies; informal networks / communities of practice … whether at sub-national, national, regional or international level; open to a wide variety of members (producers & consumers of evaluation)

8. The first project of EvalPartners (2012) was to map the status of VOPEs around the world

9. 1981 Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) Societecanadienned'evaluation (SCE)

10. 1986 – American Evaluation Association (AEA) merger of Evaluation Research Society (1979) and Evaluation Network (1982)

11. 1987 – Australasian Evaluation Society (AES)

12. 1988 – Société québécoise d'évaluation de programmes (SQEP)

13. 1992 – UK Evaluation Society (UKES)

14. 1994 – European Evaluation Society (EES)

15. 1999 – African Evaluation Association(AfrEA)

16. 2000 – International Program Evaluation Network (IPEN) (later became The Eurasian Alliance of National Evaluation Associations)

17. 2004 – ReLAC (Red de Seguimiento, Evaluación y Sistematización en America Latina y el Caribe)

18. 2008 – Community of Evaluators South Asia (CoE/SA)

19. 2011 – Evaluators Network of the Middle East and North Africa (EvalMENA)

20. 2013 – Asia-Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA)

22. Mapping the status of VOPEs That interactive world map and constantly updated database of global VOPEs is accessible at www.IOCE.net

23. That amazing growth of the evaluation profession is more succinctly summarized in the following bar graph …

24. Cumulative number of VOPEs in existence, by year (only including those reporting year of formation)

25. EvalPartners VOPE survey by the numbers Note: these numbers constantly change as new information is received. These numbers as of March 2019

26. Current membership numbers reported (including overlaps)(multiple memberships)

27. How formally organized are these VOPEs?

28. How are VOPEs are addressing “the evaluation environment” in their countries? An important component of the EvalPartners mapping survey was to find out what VOPEs are doing to promote Evaluation Capacity Development in general, and governmental policies and the “demand side” for evaluation in particular.

29. How VOPEs are addressing “the evaluation environment” in their countries

30. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Program+ Innovation Challenge grants Multiple mutually beneficial partnerships have been formed!

31. Here’s what some of these partnerships look like geo-graphically P2P national VOPEs Regional partnerships Innovation Challenge

32. Other initiatives: Toolkit to help VOPEs advocate for enhanced evaluation policies Toolkit for VOPE institutional capacity development E-learning via series of webinars Promoting Equity-Focused & Gender-Responsive evaluations

33. Books published

35. As a global network, EvalYouth’s goal is to encourage and enable young and emerging evaluators, to become competent, experienced and well-networked professionals who contribute to evaluation capacity.

36. EVALSDGs aims to form a strong evaluation partnership to inform, support, measure and assess development efforts around the SDGs. 

37. The global partnership to promote the demand, supply and use of Equity-Focused and Gender-Responsive Evaluations

38. Cultivate the recognition and understanding of Indigenous evaluative knowledge and methods by the global evaluation community – from practitioners to commissioners of evaluation Facilitate spaces for Indigenous peoples to self-determine their evaluation agenda

39. A global network of parliamentarians promoting demand for and use of evaluation for evidence-based policy making. Support for National Evaluation Policies around the world.

40. See updated current information about at: www.EvalPartners.org Andabout at: www.IOCE.net

41. In particular, go to https://ioce.net/vope-directory Insert the name of your country in the search field. Click on the name of the VOPE(s) to see their profile. If you can’t find a VOPE there, contact me (JimRugh@mindspring.com) and I’ll let you know if there is an informal, unregistered VOPE in your country.

42. Here is my main message: CARE staff with MEL responsibilities have much to learn from other evaluators in your country … and much to contribute to the strengthening of evaluation capacities there.