The Amazing Global Growth of the Evaluation Profession

1. Presentation by Jim Rugh to formative meeting of the Myanmar M&E Association (MMEA)Yangon, 11 March, 2015 The Amazing Global Growth of the Evaluation Profession

2. Outline of this presentation • The growth of the global evaluation profession • Role of IOCE (International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation) • EvalPartners initiative • International Year of Evaluation (EvalYear) • Global Evaluation Agenda 2016-2020 • Professionalization

3. A report of the mapping of VOPEs

4. 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)

5. The following maps show when some of the major VOPEs were formed.

6. 1981 Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) Societecanadienned'evaluation (SCE)

7. 1986 – American Evaluation Association (AEA) merger of Evaluation Research Society (1979) and Evaluation Network (1982)

8. 1987 – Australasian Evaluation Society (AES)

9. 1994 – European Evaluation Society (EES)

10. 1999 – African Evaluation Association(AfrEA)

11. 2000 – International Program Evaluation Network (IPEN)

12. 2004 – ReLAC (Red de Seguimiento, Evaluación y Sistematización en America Latina y el Caribe)

13. 2008 – Community of Evaluators South Asia (CoE-SA)

14. 2011 – Evaluators Network of the Middle East and North Africa (EvalMENA)

15. 2013 – Asia-Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA)

17. That interactive world map and constantly updated database of global VOPEs is accessible at www.IOCE.net

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

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

20. Numbers of VOPEs in IOCE database Note: these numbers constantly change as new information is received. These numbers as of March 2016

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

22. How formally organized are these VOPEs?

23. What is the ? The International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation was established in 2003 to serve as the umbrella organization for VOPEs. This includes identifying them (as we’ve just seen), encouraging the development of other VOPEs, promoting the development of their capacities and representing the community of VOPEs in international forums (like EvalPartners).

24. Members of the IOCE Board are representatives of the regional and big VOPEs CES IPEN / EAEN EES RFE (Francophone) EvalMENA AEA CoE-SA AfrEA ReLAC AES

25. IOCE Represents 170 VOPEsAnd serves as Secretariat and Implementing Partner ofEvalPartners Manages Operations Effectively IOCE VISION Evaluations are widely used, leading to evidence-based decision making, effective policies, good governance, and a strong role for civil society IOCE MISSION Evaluation is legitimized globally as an important management and governance tool Advocates & advances evaluation Develops & strengthens VOPEs Remains a Global Evaluation Leader

26. EvalPartners Global Partnership

27. UN Agencies, Donors & Multilateral Banks Governments + Parliamentarians VOPEs and Civil Society Universities & Capacity Building Initiatives

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

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

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

31. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Program+ Innovation Challenge grants Multiple mutually beneficial partnerships being formed!

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

33. Peer-to-Peer (P2P) + Innovation Challenge (IC) Projects by the numbers: • Total of 58 projects funded during 2013 - 2015 • Involving a total of 53 national and 11 regional VOPEs • Average grants $5,000 per P2P project; $15,000 for IC • Total grants $500,000 • New round of grants to be launched in mid-2016

34. Examples of these P2P Projects : • Malaysia Evaluation Society (MES) helping Cambodian Evaluation Society (CamES) formalize their VOPE • Macedonian Evaluation Network (MEN) + Romanian Society of Evaluators (RoSE) exchanging experiences • Egyptian Research & Evaluation Network (EREN) with EvalMENA integrating evaluation in legislative bodies • Palestinian Evaluation Association (PEA) + Jordan Development Evaluation Association (EvalJordan) setting up evaluation database

35. Examples of these P2P Projects : • Somali Development Evaluation Association (SDEA) carried out media campaigns to increase the demand for evaluation in Somalia • Réseau Burkinabé de Suivi et Evaluation (ReBuSE) + Réseau Nigérien de Suivi et Evaluation (ReNSE) twinning junior and senior experts • National Monitoring and Evaluation Network of the Kyrgyz Republic + Tajikistan MoEvCoP + Kazakhstan KoCE + Washington Evaluators (AEA local affiliate) sharing experiences

36. Other initiatives: Toolkit to help VOPEs advocate for enhanced national evaluation policies Toolkit for VOPE institutional capacity development E-learning courses via the www.MyMandE/EvalPartnerswebsite

37. Networks launched: EvalSDGs EvalYouth EvalGender+ EvalIndigeneous Professionalization State of Evaluation Parliamentarians’ Forum

38. Books published

39. Nov. 2015 2nd Global Forum, Kathmandu Nepal Sept-Oct. 2013 NEC conference with UNDP, Brazil

40. EvalYear

41. EvalYear logo in 32 languages http://mymande.org/evalyear/evalyear-logo-different-languages

42. EvalYear Torch was passed around the world

43. EvalYear was originally proposed by EvalPartners. Endorsed by the NEC (National Evaluation Capacities) conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sept. 2013. Officially included in UN resolution in December 2014. A total of 92 EvalYear events were registered at: http://mymande.org/evalyear/evaluationtorch2015

44. Some of the countries where EvalYear events were held

45. Strengthen Enabling Environments for Evaluation CREATE USE Evaluation Capacity Development Advocacy Policy Development Communication Repositories and Knowledge Management Open Data Access • Evaluation policies and systems • Independent Executive Evaluation Units • National Data Management Systems • Expand partnerships with parliamentarians, policy makers, supreme audit

46. Develop Individual Evaluator Capacities • Promote Evaluation Capacity Development • Expand offerings: diplomas, Bachelors, Masters, PhDs • Accredit courses/ institutions • Certify Continuous Professional Development Courses • Build Career Pathways and Develop Young/Emerging Evaluators • Explore Professionalization • Evaluator Certification • Evaluator Credentials • Develop National Competencies in tune with International Standards/ Competencies Frameworks

47. Institutionalise VOPEs and Build Civil Society www.vopetoolkit.ioce.net

48. Examples of VOPEs purposes: Evaluation Association of Bhutan (EAB) [Extracts from APEA’s Objectives] • Strengthening the quality and evaluation functions in Bhutan. • Developing and strengthening the technical and functional capacities of individuals to conduct credible and useful evaluations in Bhutan. • Networking of the dispersed evaluators in the country and linking with other evaluation communities and experts/resources. • Creation of demand for high quality evaluations and create supply of good evaluators in the society. • Ensure proper mechanisms in place for information dissemination and policy interventions. • Provide forum for discussion of ideas and explore different sources of funding for evaluation.

49. Examples of VOPEs purposes: Thailand Evaluation Network (TEN) [Goal of Peer-to-Peer project with the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) funded by IOCE/EvalPartners] The goal is to enhance quality of evaluations through improved capacity of evaluation practitioners and any professional sector all over Thailand through the Certification of Professional Evaluators. To achieve the goal, two major activities were conducted and completed: 1) National Conference on entitled “Professionalizing Evaluation in Thailand” on Nov. 4, 2013 in Bangkok and 2) Two- day workshop between Nov. 5-6, 2013 to develop Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between TEN and CES on Certification of Professional Evaluators Programme.

50. Examples of VOPEs purposes: Asia-Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA) [Extracts from APEA’s Aims] • To improve the theory, practice, use and institutions of evaluation; • To establish and promote ethics, professionalism, and exemplary standards in evaluation practice in the Asia-Pacific Region; • To provide forums for discussions of ideas including Association publications, seminars, workshops, and conferences in the Region; • To promote transparent and accountable governance in the region; • To promote inclusiveness and link members who have similar evaluation interests regionally and globally; • To promote research and development for the advancement of evaluation; • To facilitate knowledge sharing and provide education and training in matters related to evaluation; • To recognize outstanding contributions to the theory and the practice of evaluation.