EvalFest Reports

 July 22, 2024
EvalFest 2024 once again featured the well-established role of evaluation as the catalyst for development. Several aspects such as theoretical, methodological, organizational, practical, and so on were discussed in various sessions of the event that generated additions to existing knowledge and threw light on new areas.  One of the most important takeaways from the event was the enormous opportunity it provided to evaluation professionals to reflect on the evaluation history, review current practices, and envision the profession’s future.

A major outcome of EvalFest 2024 was the recognition that partnerships between various stakeholders, particularly with the communities, were of utmost importance. Partnerships between governments, financial institutions, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and communities are essential for the spread of evaluation culture and more so for the success of evaluation capacity development efforts. For example, ECOI’s partnerships with higher educational institutions, such as Lady Irwin College, in this EvalFest and elsewhere have given a significant impetus to evaluation capacity development (ECD). The success of EvalFest 2024 can be largely attributed to these partnerships.
Read Full EvalFest Report 2024 Here

By   July 12, 2020

EvalFest 2020, a three-day event (February 12 -14, 2020) in Delhi, was conceptualised as a step in the direction of co-producing knowledge and building partnerships with various stakeholders to ensure that evaluation and evidence are used in decision-making. The overarching theme and learning objective of EvalFest 2020 was Building evidence for achieving SDGs: Digital Development and Inclusion.  The sub-themes/tracks which were focussed for discussion within this overarching theme were:

  1. SDGs: prioritization, building evaluation capabilities and evidence use
  2. Gender and Evaluation
  3. Inclusion- social, economic, cultural and behavioural
  4. New Frontiers in Evaluation: New knowledge and practice
  5. Use of technology in Monitoring and Evaluation
By   May 14, 2018

EvalFest 2018 (7-9 February, 2018, New Delhi) was designed as an event to contribute to evaluation capacity building by sharing knowledge about the best practices, approaches and evaluation methods that are participatory, contextual, replicable and adaptable. This event was conceptualized with the belief that every stakeholder involved with the process of development had something critical and mutually reinforcing to bring to the field of evaluation. The event was envisaged to be inclusive and participatory for a range of actors from beneficiaries through evaluators to policymakers. EvalFest provided the convening space to bring them together to have collective ideas that would help build common understanding of the importance of evaluation, how it was done and its usefulness for learning and making improvements by sharing knowledge and perspectives.

EvalFest 2018 was conceptualized as a small step in the direction of promoting an evaluation culture in the country so that all stakeholders such as policy-makers, program managers, evaluation practitioners, non-governmental organizations, academia and most importantly the community are convinced about the process and practice of evaluation and accept it as means to evidence-informed decision-making and dissemination of information. It was also intended as a platform to co-produce and share knowledge and build partnerships with various stakeholders to ensure that evaluation and evidence use became corner-stones in working towards achieving global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus contributing to evaluation capacity building. Visibility, Voice and Value in evaluations were the over-arching principles governing EvalFest.

Read the full report here.