We are Shaha Zehra, Evaluation Consultant and Leonardo Lemes, Senior Operations Officer, both writing from the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group and affiliated with the CLEAR Initiative – Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results. In June 2019, the CLEAR Initiative organized the inaugural gLOCAL Evaluation Week with an aim to reach more people in more places by fostering local, regional, and global knowledge sharing and networking opportunities.
The 2019 gLOCAL Evaluation Week was a success thanks to 177 institutions who organized and hosted 267 Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) knowledge sharing events. Sessions were hosted by a range of organizers including government institutions, non-profit organizations, academic and private sector entities (see figure 1). Globally, 60 percent of sessions were related to Evaluation Capacity Development and Evaluation Communication and Use. Topics such as ‘public policies,’ ‘social development,’ and ‘strengthening M&E systems’ were predominant. The largest group of participants – nearly 50 percent – came from government, with significant participation from students (16 percent) and academic researchers (10 percent), non-profit professionals (9 percent), and evaluation practitioners (5 percent), see figure 2 for a regional breakdown of participants. An estimated 22,000 people attended in-person or online events in 38 countries across five continents.
The unfortunate circumstances brought by COVID19 have changed the way we engage with one another. We are working with our partners to adapt to this new dynamic and rise to the challenge of bridging distances through virtual solutions. Therefore, the 2020 gLOCAL Evaluation Week will be fully virtual. Making gLOCAL 2020 virtual creates new opportunities to reach an even wider audience and engage in a continuous dialogue across time zones. While this is a different format, we are encouraged by the positive feedback from our partners this year. A majority of them have adapted their event to enable a virtual delivery, and some have proposed additional events regarding the implications on and importance of M&E in the context of the COVID19 pandemic and other global crises.
Do you want to be involved? Please consider:
- Promoting gLOCAL Evaluation Week through your professional networks and social media channels. More information is available at the CLEAR Initiative; and
- Encouraging everyone to participate in gLOCAL Evaluation Week events. Go to gLOCAL Evaluation Week to see the 2020 Calendar of Events.
For more information, please visit the CLEAR Initiative, follow the CLEAR Initiative (@theCLEARInitiative) on twitter, or email clear@worldbank.org.
Share your knowledge, experiences, and make new connections. Together, we can strengthen local and global monitoring and evaluation capacity and help close the M&E gap to promote stronger development outcomes.
gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2019: Event Organizers
gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2019: Regional Breakdown of Participants
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