Abstract
Towards strengthened civil society’s evaluation capacities
The International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE) and UNICEF, in partnership with the Government of Finland, are pleased to launch an innovative partnership to enhance the capacities of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to influence policy makers, public opinion and other key stakeholders so that public policies are based on evidence, and incorporate considerations of equity and effectiveness. The objective of the Initiative is to enhance the capacities of CSOs to engage, in a strategic and meaningful manner, in national evaluation processes, and to influence country-led evaluation systems. The working title of this initiative is ‘EvalPartners’.
The expected outcomes of this initiative are three-fold:
Voluntary Organizations of Professional Evaluators (VOPEs) have a strengthened Institutional capacity.
VOPEs are able to play a strategic role within their countries, contributing to country-led evaluation systems and policies, including by having better access to support by regional and international networks/associations (including IOCE and the more developed VOPEs) and institutions (including, inter alia, UNICEF), sharing lessons learned of similar experiences in other countries, and peer-to-peer mutual support.
VOPE members have stronger evaluation capacities, including by attending live webinars with international keynote speakers; e-learning programmes; mentoring programmes; and training organized by local institutions and more developed VOPEs.
A growing international evaluation community
Over the last decades, CSOs have been playing increasingly central and active roles in promoting greater accountability for public actions through evaluation. National and regional VOPEs grew from 15 in the 1990s to more than 120 currently. There is tremendous scope for exchanges of homegrown and country-driven solutions, ideas and experience to support capacity development in evaluation. A range of societies, agencies and groupings are being contacted worldwide to participate in this initiative. It has adopted a broadly inclusive approach, so for more information and an idea on how you might participate, please contact Marco Segone, UNICEF Evaluation Office,