Evaluation Week 2016

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Evaluation Week 2016

The auditorium at AFDB Headquarters was vibrant with evaluation and development experts gathering at the IDEV Knowledge Café on the first day of Evaluation Week, Monday 07th November 2016. The theme was the utilization of evaluations for enhancing the delivery and results of the ‘High 5’s’, and also for improving evaluation practice.

AfDB Evaluation Week 2016 brochure

Evaluation Matters Special Edition 2016

The photo gallery from Evaluation Week 2016

The event kicked off with a keynote speech on Impact Evaluation (IE) entitled "why we need IE for international development, and why we are not doing more of IEs, and what we can do to have more IEs? by Prof. Maria Sophia Aguirre, Catholic University of America.

Impact Evaluation / Evaluation d’impact

Also on Day 1, the IDEV knowledge café was set up in the lobby at AfDB Headquarters in Abidjan to discuss the specificities of evaluating each of the Bank’s High-5s.

Five thematic tables (one for each of the AfDB High-5s) were set up in ‘café’ style to create a relaxed, informal ambience. The facilitator, IDEV Evaluator Foday Turay, introduced the knowledge café and invited participants to choose a table to start the process.

The Knowledge Mentor on each table then gave brief guidelines, prompting the participants in their discussion. After 20 minutes, the participants rotated to the next table, while the host stayed behind to introduce the question once more and summarize the preceding discussion for a new set of participants. The new participants then add their insights to the question, refining or modifying the contributions of the previous group. A concluding plenary wrapped up the discussions.

"The Knowledge Café was an opportunity to brainstorm and put forward candid opinions on how to better use evaluation to achieve the High-5s. “On my table, it was put forward that beneficiaries of a development programme would be more inclined to take note of evaluation lessons learned if they were involved in the programme from the design phase. Perhaps this is one way to gain in sustainable development.” Amadou Boly, participant at the “Quality of Life” table.

Evaluation Week Knowledge Café / Café Connaissances

R. Lamdany – Evaluation in IFIs

On Day 2, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Planning and Development, Nialé Kaba was the guest of honour at the opening ceremony. In her address on behalf of the country’s Prime Minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan, she stressed the importance of evaluating the progress of the Bank’s “High 5” priorities: Light up and power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. “These are all fundamental to transforming the continent,” she said.

As satellite images continue to show, Africa is the “dark” continent that continues to fail to achieve the electrification target. During the high-level discussion, panellists gave their point of view on how well the continent is moving forward, and debated the priorities to make the transformation happen. The moderator of the session, Erik Nyindu, Vox Africa News Director, stressed the need to showcase what works and what has been done well, giving the example of Cape Verde. “How do we federate the will of a nation to move forward collectively?” he asked.

This panel discussion of the afternoon focused on the first of the High 5s, specifically, the topic “Light up and Power Africa.” The panelists, all of whom are experts with several years of hands-on experience in Africa, discussed and debated on the theme to shed light on the capacity imperatives, governance issues, financial, operational, technological, regulatory support, and leadership required to deliver on the AfDB’s High-5 of lighting up and powering Africa using more innovative solutions.

Best of Evaluation Week – Transforming Africa

Opening ceremony / Cérémonie d’ouverture

Light up and power Africa panel / Discussion panel : Eclairer et électrifier l’Afrique

Evaluation Week-Best-of – Light up and Power Africa

High level panel on Transforming Africa / Panel haut niveau :Transformer l’Afrique

Day 3 of Evaluation week was on the High 5 themes of " Feed Africa" and "Industrialise Africa". In his keynote address of the Feed Africa session, Mr Chris Toe of the World Food Programme stressed that we should focus on the most vulnerable and the recognition that reaching Africa’s hungry poor requires a fundamental revolution in how we collectively work; and that doing business as usual is insufficient. "If we fail to change what we do, and how much we do, we will not realize change in the time or at the scaled up levels required, he said. In fact, if we keep responding in the same way, evidence suggests that by 2030 some 650 million people, many of them in Africa, will remain left behind, trapped in hunger’s vicious cycle. And if we fail to mitigate climate-change by 2050, an additional 200 million, many in Africa again, will join the ranks of the hungry poor".

Evaluation Week - Best of - Feed Africa

Feed Africa panel discussion / Discussion panel : Nourrir l’Afrique

Evaluation Week - Best of - Feed Africa

Evaluation Week- Indran Naidoo, UNDP

Results-based M&E presentation / Présentation M&E sur résultats

The Industrialize Africa panel discussion began with a presentation on private-sector development. Stakeholders and economists discussed the six largest obstacles to doing business in Africa, as revealed by the findings from a recent synthesis report.

"We must generate resources internally and challenge our central banks, using the example of micro-financing models. Let’s innovate and generate our own resources". Mariam Dao Gabala, CEO of MDG Consulting, and Chair of the Board of Solidaridad.

Industrialize Africa-Industrialiser l’Afrique : Panel Discussion

Evaluation Week – Best of – Industrialize Africa

The 4th day of Evaluation Week was dedicated to the High 5s "Improving the Quality of Life for Africans" and "Integrating Africa". To round up the event, a panel of evaluation experts gave their thoughts on how to "climbing the High 5 learning curve", discussing the importance of both self and independant evaluations of development achievements, and the way forward in light of the challenges posed by the AfDB's ambitions to transform Africa.

"Do we learn more from success or from failure? From success, we can deduce that we should do more of the same where failure can lead to innovation. The private sector handles this quite well, but in a public-sector framework, risking public money on innovation raises issues", Keith Leonard, Development Evaluation Expert, EBRD.

In his presentation on Integrating Africa, Frederik Soderbaum of the University of Gothenburg said "There is increasing diversity of African integration mechanisms with regional organizations, regional networks and functional regional programmes & bottom-up regionalism. Regional integration and regional organizations in Africa are extremely dependent on external funding (more than other regions of the world), yet there is little systematic evidence on the effects of donor support and development financing on regional integration. Due to the knowledge gap, at this point in time it is easier to find evidence about what is not working. There is an urgent need for systematic and high-quality evidence through evaluation & research".