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Overview

The UNDP Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has been organizing biennial National Evaluation Capacity (NEC) Conferences since 2009 when the first NEC Conference was held in Morocco. The second was organized in 2011 in South Africa, followed by Brazil in 2013, and Thailand in 2015. This year, the UNDP IEO and the Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS are co-hosting with the Government of Turkey, the 2017 NEC Conference in Istanbul from 16 to 20 October 2017. The theme of the Conference is People, Planet and Progress in the SDG Era.

  • Present and exchange lessons, innovations, experiences and perspectives in developing and adapting national evaluation capacities in light of the SDGs;
  • Explore the implications of the SDGs for principals, principles and practices of evaluation;
  • Develop partnerships to strengthen national evaluation systems.

The 2017 NEC Conference is designed first and foremost to offer opportunities to share experiences and learning amongst government officials from national and sub-national institutions directly and indirectly engaged with evaluation and the SDG agenda. As the SDGs are universal, participation from all countries will be encouraged, to facilitate the development of new partnerships in new configurations. UNDP staff engaged in supporting national governments on evaluation, governance and the SDG agenda, evaluators and other development actors from UNDP programme countries, members of the European Evaluation Society (EES), experts from other networks such as the United Nations Evaluation Group, the Evaluation Coordination Group of the multi-lateral development banks, and OECD-DAC, as well as from professional evaluation associations and other members of the wider global evaluation community will also be welcomed at the conference.

The Conference will promote exchanges on progress since NEC 2015, examining innovations and lessons learned in strengthening enabling environments, national evaluation policy frameworks and institutional set-ups, as well as pursue the discussions initiated in Brazil in 2011 on the importance of independence, credibility and use of evaluations to improve the effectiveness of public policy, programmes and service delivery. At the same time, the Conference will explore the implications of the SDGs for evaluation and national evaluation capacities. This will include a focus on the principle of “no one left behind” as well as an exploration of multi-stakeholder approaches, including engagement with the private sector. In addition, as “eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, combating inequality within and among countries, preserving the planet, creating sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and fostering social inclusion are linked to each other and areinterdependent” Conference participants will explore what these interlinkages and interdependencies imply for evaluation practice.

The event will take place over five days, beginning with two days of pre-Conference training workshops (16 and 17 October), followed by three days dedicated to the Conference (18 to 20 October).

The main working language of the Conference will be English, however selected sessions and training workshops will be organized in French, Spanish, and Russian, and interpretation into other languages will be available for many sessions during the conference.