Parliamentarians Forum on Development Evaluation conducted a panel at SLEvA conference in Colombo

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

Parliamentarians Forum on Development Evaluation is working towards establishment of national evaluation policies in South Asia. The Forum is now represented by parliamentarians from seven out of eight South Asian countries; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Maldives is in the process of joining the Forum. Recently the Forum became a member of EvalPartners.

The Forum successfully conducted a panel presentation on “Why National Evaluation Policies matter in South Asia” at Sri Lanka Evaluation Association (SLEvA) International Evaluation Conference which was held from 24-25 July in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Nine parliamentarians representing seven countries attend the conference proving the interest and commitment in development evaluation (Afghanistan -2, Bangladesh – 1, Bhutan – 1, Nepal -2, Pakistan -1 and Sri Lanka -2). Presentations can be shared upon request.

On 26th July the Forum conducted it's planning meeting at the parliament of Sri Lanka. The strategic plan for 2013-2014 was discussed and confirmed and parliamentarians agreed to initiate the plan immediately. The forum just initiated the mapping status of national evaluation policies globally which is the next step of the strategic plan.

[Shraddha Chigateri]

Asela, thanks for sharing this. A group of us from India were at the forum in Mount Lavinia and it was interesting to see the involvement of parliamentarians in discussions on evaluation. Could you let us know which parliamentarians from India are involved in the forum?

Many thanks 

[Krinna Shah]

Dear Asela,

Thanks for sharing this post.  I would like to know more about status of India in this context. I had tried to understand it and it seems that India is a member of this forum and did not attend that planning meeting. Pls clarify.

Thanking you in advance,

Krinna Shah

[Rituu B Nanda]

Dear Asela,

Thanks for the post. Bringing together Parliamentarians is by no means an easy task. What do you think has helped them get on board? What kind of activities does the forum undertake?

The group photo is very nice:-) Please share the presentations if possible. you can edit the post and upload them. Or send them to me and I can do it for you.

Best regards,

Rituu

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

Dear Krinna,

Yes, India MP couldn't attend the conference in Colombo due to last minute cancellation. Parliamentarians from six countries made presentations and they were very well received. This time we didn't have a presentation from India. The parliamentarians forum is governed by the core team which is represented by MP from ach South Asian country. However we are planning to increase # of MPs from India due to the size and the diversity of the country. Hope you are familiar with performance management system of India. http://www.performance.gov.in/ There are some political champions like Hon. Omar Abdullah, CM of J&K involved this. Please see forum FB for more details http://www.facebook.com/pages/Parliamentarians-Forum-on-Development...
 
 

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

Dear Ritu,

Exactly it was not easy to bring parliamentarians in due to various reasons. However we contacted MPs from different countries through various ways and selected some committed MPs as the core team. We allowed necessary time to grow it slowly and gradually so that it will not have a sudden death. It was an asset that the Sri Lankan parliamentarian who is also a professional evaluator (rare combination) is the leader and spoke to MPs from other countries to join the forum. The message was very strong than any one else say it. Sri Lankan MP, Hon. Kabir Hashim started talking about parliamentarians role in evaluation years back. He and I attended IDEAS global assembly in 2009 in J'Berg and he had a presentation on this in that conference as well. But it took some time for him to get more MPs. Now that parliamentarians are organized formally it is an advantage to convince policy makers and parliaments. The aim of the forum is not to strengthen MPs, but to strengthen parliaments so that it is sustainable and long lasting, so that parliaments can establish necessary systems. I will share presentations with this community.
 
 

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

Dear Ritu,

Please attached three presentations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan. I will post presentations from other countries as well. There is a room to improve these presentations. However it is very important that parliamentarians prepared these presentations and educated people on this. It's our role to strengthen them about evaluation and help them to establish necessary systems at country levels. I have requested forum member MPs to join this community so it is an opportunity to exchange ideas and knowledge.

 

Asela

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

More parliamentarians initiatives in other regions;

http://www.mymande.org/evalyear/working_with_parliaments

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 theMorocco 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 [e-mail], Tessie Catsambas at [e-mail] and Issaka Traoré at [e-mail], co-chairs of EvalPartners Task Force on Enabling Environment for Evaluation, and Jim Rugh at [e-mail], EvalPartners Coordinator, to share your experience.

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

Proceedings of the Colombo panel on "why national evaluation policies are important" including presentations by parliamentarians.

http://www.mymande.org/evalpartners/blogs/parliamentarians-forum-de...

[Asela Kalugampitiya]

Parliamentarians Forum attended the 3rd M&E Network Forum in Manila which was held from 6-8 November. The event was attended by;
Hon. Rangina Kargar from Afghanistan
Hon. Jigmi Rinzin from Bhutan
Hon. Kabir Hashim from Sri Lanka
Hon. Hashim was a key note speaker of the forum and other two parliamentarians joined as panelists. Philippines new national evaluation policy was launched in the event and this was a fruitful experience for parliamentarians forum members to learn from. Ada Ocampo organized the parliamentarians sessions and moderated them. At the event 2015 was declared as International Year of Evaluation. This is the 4th international conference in 2013 parliamentarians were in agenda. We have joined with evaluation conference organizers to get parliamentarians on the agenda in 2014.