EvalPartners has made strengthening the enabling environment for evaluation a priority, with the aim of increasing the demand and use of good-quality evaluations in public policy decision-making.

In the EvalPartners’ International Forum in Chiang Mai, a Parliamentarian from the Morocco Parliament engaged with the Forum participants, including the responsible for the national evaluation system as well as the President of the Moroccan Evaluation Society, to bridge the gap between demand and supply of evaluation. For additional information, read more.

In South Asia, the Parliamentarians Forum on Development Evaluation is an emerging collective of parliamentarians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka committed to development evaluations in SAARC countries. The Forum was initiated by a small group of parliamentarians aiming to establish National Evaluation Policies in SAARC region. In February 2013, the first ever parliamentarians panel presented three country experience (Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh) on enabling environment for development evaluation in respective countries at the Evaluation Conclave organized by the Community of Evaluators Kathmandu, Nepal. For additional information, read more.

In Europe, the European Evaluation Society organized a ‘public hearing’ on Evaluation in Democracy at the European Parliament. The overarching purpose of the event was to stimulate debate and innovative thinking about the potential role of evaluation in the European Parliament and the European Commission. For additional information, read more.

In USA, the American Evaluation Association (AEA) ratified policies include in Article 2.1 “Influencing of Evaluation Policy” as a major priority, and state: “AEA will strive to influence the setting and use of U.S. evaluation policy.” In September 1, 2007, the AEA Board of Directors established the Evaluation Policy Task Force (EPTF) in order to enhance AEA’s ability to identify and influence policies that have a broad effect on evaluation practice and to establish a framework and procedures for accomplishing this objective. Since then, with the support of a paid consultant, the EPTF has issued key documents promoting a wider role for evaluation in the Federal Government, influenced both federal legislation and executive policy, and informed AEA members and others about the value of evaluation through public presentations and newsletter articles. For additional information, read more.

If your VOPE or organization is engaged in actively influencing national evaluation policy, notably by engaging with Parliaments, please contact Marco Segone at msegone@unicef.org , Tessie Catsambas at tcatsambas@encompassworld.com and Issaka Traoré at issakatraore@yahoo.com , co-chairs of EvalPartners Task Force on Enabling Environment for Evaluation, and Jim Rugh at jimrugh@mindspring.com , EvalPartners Coordinator, to share your experience.