Full Agenda
Evidence for better bets: Rebalancing risk in development assistance
Fireside Chat: Ken Chomitz in conversation with Aman Trana, DG, PPFD, ADB
Session Coordinator: Joanna Titic
World Health Organization
Participants will gain practical insights on how evaluation evidence can be embedded into decision-making systems by aligning timing, incentives, and partnerships. The session will highlight lessons on overcoming institutional barriers, strengthening feedback loops, balancing independence and influence, and using synthesis and collaboration to improve learning, accountability, and policy and operational effectiveness.
Independent Evaluation Department, Asian Development Bank
Explore how countries across Asia and the Pacific, from those with mature evidence systems to those still struggling to institutionalize evidence use, are strengthening evidence-informed decision-making, and identify practical lessons for advancing reforms, budgeting, and development results.
Keynote speaker:
Abdul Abiad, Deputy Chief Economist, ADB
Panelists
World Bank
Participants will leave with a concrete understanding of the evidence base on E&S development returns, the measurement gaps that currently obscure that evidence, and practical recommendations for how evaluation can drive smarter allocation of E&S resources across the project cycle.
Panelists
Lauren Kelly, Lead Evaluation Officer, Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank Group
Maria Elena Pinglo, Senior Evaluation Officer, Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank Group
Moderator
Asia-Pacific Finance Development Institute
Session Coordinator: Jeanne Pineda-David
New Development Bank
Participants will gain practical insights into how development institutions can strengthen the use of evaluation evidence in decision-making through effective institutional mechanisms, incentives, and learning systems. Drawing on experiences from MDBs and government institutions, participants will better understand how evaluation evidence can support both organizational learning and more informed operational and strategic decisions.
Welcome Remarks
Asia-Pacific Finance Development Institute
Session Coordinator: CJ Mongcopa
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Participants will gain practical insights into how evaluation systems can transform evidence into action by strengthening the links between findings, recommendations, management follow-up, and organizational learning and leveraging innovation and partnerships in evaluation to balance speed, scale and quality, and strengthening the use of evidence in decision-making.
Panelists
Eskender Zeleke ,Head Independent Evaluation, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
Independent Evaluation Department, Asian Development Bank
Participants will learn how recent evidence from IED's Waves of Resilience SIDS evaluation and the FSA 2025 Annual Report and 2026–2030 Action Plan can inform smarter financing, and operational choices in vulnerable contexts—offering practical lessons on climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, resilience financing, differentiated approaches, institutional strengthening, and the use of evidence to guide scarce development resources where fragility and vulnerability compound.
Panelists
Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, NITI Aayog and International Initiative for Impact Evaluation
Participants will gain insights into how governments, multilateral organizations, development finance institutions, and development partners are leveraging data systems to strengthen evidence use, support adaptive decision-making, and improve development effectiveness, including lessons from embedding data systems and leveraging evaluations within the context of a large-scale, multi-partner development initiative.
European Investment Bank
Participants will gain insights into how the concept of additionality is evolving across international financial institutions, the opportunities and challenges of extending it beyond financing, approaches to assessing and evidencing additionality in practice, and the implications of balancing additionality with other institutional objectives, incentives, and accountability requirements.
Panelists
Áron Gereben, Evaluation Lead, European Investment Bank (EIB)
Asia Pacific Evaluation Association
APEA works with governments, parliamentarians and VOPES to strengthen evaluation and evidence base decision-making systems. We undertook a research project to understand institutionalization of evidence-based decision-making systems in the Asia Pacific region involving data collection, analysis and mapping. This session will discuss regional trends and share country experiences and its role in improving outcomes and resource use.
Panelists
3ie UNIDO GEF
Participants will learn how evidence can support better policy and resource-allocation decisions at three connected levels: generating credible evidence on programme contributions, embedding evidence within policymaking systems, and delivering timely analysis for consequential decisions. The cases will identify practical conditions that enable evidence to move from analysis to institutional use and action.
Panelists
Lucas Sempe, Lead Evaluation Specialist, 3ie
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
Participants will learn how evaluation evidence can strengthen energy transition projects by informing financing approaches, improving results measurement, supporting integrated energy planning, and addressing affordability and sustainability challenges. They will gain practical lessons on using evaluation findings to enhance the effectiveness and long-term impact of development investments.
Opening Remarks
Carmen Nonay, Managing Director, CEIU, AIIB
Panelists
Green Climate Fund
Participants will gain evidence-based insights into what a decade of climate finance has achieved and where improvements are still needed in the GCF context with broader lessons applicable for the international climate finance space and practitioners. Through complementary evaluation findings on institutional performance, country ownership and leadership, and gender-responsive programming and implementation, the session will highlight practical lessons for strengthening the effectiveness, inclusiveness, and impact of climate finance.
UNDP and UNFPA
Participants will explore what it means to be an ‘AI-augmented evaluator’, leveraging AI tools to improve efficiency and analytical depth across the evaluation cycle. Through case studies from UNFPA, UNDP, and ADB, attendees will gain insights into practical strategies for adopting AI responsibly, balancing technological speed with the human oversight, ethical transparency, and contextual understanding required for generating high-quality evidence.
Presentors/Storytellers
OECD
Through a two-way exchange, participants will have an opportunity to reflect on their own use of global evaluation norms (in theory and practice) and contribute to deepening the shared understanding of how global norms can strengthen evaluation quality and use, and enable collaboration across diverse stakeholders and ultimate improve results, while being contextually responsive.
Lead Presenter
Peter vander KNAAP, EVALNET Vice Chair / Head of Evaluation IOB, Netherlands
Panelists
Put Your Money Where Your Evidence Is: The Headlines Shaping Evaluation's Future
Session Coordinator: CJ Mongcopa
Free but sign up is required