Background to EvalAgenda2020
The year 2015 was a landmark year for multilateralism and international policy shaping, it was also a landmark year for Evaluation.
In January 2015, the UN General Assembly began the negotiation process on the post-2015 development agenda. The process culminated in the subsequent adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with 17 SDGs at its core, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015.
The global EvalPartners movement has shaped the international agenda for evaluation by encouraging the evaluation profession to take a more global approach.
In 2015, EvalPartners harnessed several global advocacy and outreach efforts that culminated in declaring it the “International Year for Evaluation” (EvalYear2015) by a Resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. During EvalYear2015, 100+ events were held worldwide to promote evaluation and contribute to the development of a Global Evaluation Agenda 2016-2020, also known as the EvalAgenda2020.
The EvalAgenda was launched at the Parliament of Nepal in November 2015 and gained widespread commitment from UN agencies, VOPEs, academia, civil society organizations and individual evaluators across the globe.
Three pillars of the EvalAgenda
The EvalAgenda Declaration recognizes that evaluation has enormous potential to help improve society. By influencing policy makers, other key stakeholders, and public opinion, evaluation can help to ensure that public policies, programs, and processes are informed by sound evidence and lead to effective and equitable results. However, it notes that evaluation has not yet reached its full potential.
The gap between the potential value of evaluation and its current acceptance motivated EvalPartners and its signatories to work harder towards improving evaluation quality and usefulness and spread its benefits globally and across all segments of society, including the government, private and voluntary sectors.
EvalAgenda2020 acknowledged that evaluation is not simply a value‐neutral management tool, and thus EvalPartners and signatories to the EvalAgenda committed to promote evaluation processes and criteria grounded in values of equity, gender equality, and social justice and on shared principles of partnership, innovation, inclusivity, human rights and the protection of the planet.
Signatories pledged their support for evaluation priorities during the first five years of the 15‐year period addressed by the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the understanding of the “No One Left Behind” principle stated in the SDGs.
The EvalAgenda2020 constituted three pillars:
- Building individual evaluation capacity
- Strengthening institutional evaluation capacity and
- Creating an enabling environment for evaluation
Important outcomes
EvalAgenda2020 was of paramount importance within the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals[1]. The inclusion of evaluation in the 2030 Agenda that was signed by the leaders of 193 nations, demonstrated the increasing profile for evaluation and a firm acknowledgement of its role.
Evaluation practice has developed, matured, and diversified and the growth of VOPEs affiliated to the IOCE grew from about 15 in early 2000 to more than 170 national and regional VOPEs globally in 2020.
Entities within the United Nations and beyond, including VOPEs, have been engaged in various initiatives around the world to strengthen national evaluation capacities and raise awareness on the important role of evaluation to inform the follow-up and review process of the 2030 Agenda.
Many VOPEs signed the EvalAgenda Declaration and embedded its principles within their respective institutions.
[1] UN Resolution 70/1. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
For the full EvalAgenda2020 click here. For the executive summary click here.
Download the one-page declaration of the EvalAgenda2020 in English, French and Spanish.