Full Agenda

This session will share latest progress of China's performance-based budget management, and how evaluation can promotes the fiscal management more efficiently in the new situation.

In Evidence Talks Tim Harford traced the history of evidence-gathering dating it back to Mesopotamia, cradle of one of the world’s earliest civilizations. Later during his fire side chat with ADB Vice President Scott Morris he said, evidence is not enough to ensure learning. On how institutions can learn, respond, and change, Tim quoted from his book “Adapt” where he says that obstacles to learning are “psychological safety” which means, do people feel safe speaking the truth and giving accurate information? Or do they see evidence-gathering as a trap?

This session will share China’s practice and innovations in performance-based management and evaluation of projects funded by government investment funds, special treasury bonds and special local government bonds, etc.

Attendees of this panel discussion will gain valuable insights into the critical role of concessional finance, particularly through the Asian Development Fund (ADF), in supporting vulnerable Developing Member Countries (DMCs) such as Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations (FCAS) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The session will highlight how grants can catalyze innovative development initiatives and foster sustainable cooperation, focusing on lessons learned from past evaluations, best practices and strategies for long-term development.

Participants will learn about this existing initiative to assess national evaluation capacities. INCE is a collaborative and participatory effort that strengthens the awareness of national stakeholders that they are part of an evaluation system and improves communication and coordination between the stakeholders.

This presentation will explore how APEA's newly developed Code of Ethics and Evaluation Standards, along with their e-study course on MEL, are set to professionalize the field. Participants will learn how these advancements are transforming evaluation practices and driving organizational change across the Asia Pacific Region.

This panel will offer perspectives on how multilateral development banks engage with countries, using the country partnership strategy as their main tool. The conversation will focus on tailoring these strategies to each developing country's needs, improving risk assessments, integrating private sector goals, and contributing to global and regional public goods.

Participants will discover the power of impact evaluations to establish clear cause-and-effect relationships, fostering more strategic, effective, and efficient decision-making in development initiatives across various sectors.

By drawing upon diverse perspective, real-world examples, and case studies, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities of integrating evaluation into organizational practices. Key aspects include: An enhanced understanding of the role of evaluation in driving organizational transformation; Practical insights on incorporating outcome-based evaluations into organizational strategies and capacity enhancement initiatives; Increase capacity for participants to implement evaluation frameworks within their organizations; and Identification of best practices and strategies for leveraging evaluation to enhance development priorities and effectiveness.

This session will share the evaluation of ADB’s support for regional cooperations such as CAREC and GMS, and China’s practices in evaluation of international development cooperations.

MDBs are transforming. There is a clear commitment to exploring and sharing practices among institutions and to enhance and elevate our dialogue, to discuss methodological changes that could help achieve the joint goals of MDBs and stakeholders. First, participants will learn, through concrete examples and practical experience, about recent trends in evaluation towards a more effective and innovative approach in influencing the organizational transformation of MDBs. This may include evaluation experience in enhancing crises response, supporting country-level collaboration, strengthening co-financing and catalysing private sector engagement. Secondly, participants will have an opportunity to get insights about how evaluation can evolve to better support the MDB efforts to work as a system, including reviewing evaluation tools and approaches, improving cross institutional collaboration among offices and enhancing cross MDB work to harmonize further approaches and techniques (i.e. AI).

How can artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) transform the field of evaluation? Find out in this session at the 2024 Asian Evaluation Week, where we will explore cutting-edge initiatives from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the World Bank (WB). You will learn how these institutions are using advanced language models and machine learning to increase the efficiency of processing evaluation reports and improve access to valuable evaluation knowledge for accountability and learning.

Participants will gain insights into how institutional mandates are not static but must continually evolve to drive impactful outcomes. This alignment, combined with systematic performance monitoring and data-driven decision-making, promotes accountability and fosters continuous improvement, driving institutional transformation. Participants will discuss their experiences with engagement strategies that effectively identify key institutional challenges, hindering the efficient delivery of institutional mandates. The session will explore how prioritizing specific evaluation areas can lead to more effective organizational changes and sustainable improvements. Participants will gain insights into best practices for implementing evaluation recommendations, ensuring they lead to tangible and impactful organizational transformations.

The panel discussion will highlight the lessons from action on food security in Asia and the Pacific, and the challenges that remain.

This session will share China's practices in improving grassroots healthcare services and innovations in evaluation of grassroots healthcare projects.

Participants will learn practical ways in which the power of generative AI can be leveraged to enhance evaluations while mitigating ethical risks and harms. They will gain insights into implementing rigorous quality assurance processes, adhering to ethical guidelines, and fostering a culture of continuous learning to adapt to the evolving landscape of AI. Following use cases of ethical AI application in evaluations by UN agencies, participants will be equipped to leverage AI responsibly, ensuring that evaluations maintain their quality, robustness and influence in an increasingly AI-driven world.

Participants will learn how multilateral banks support small firms through instruments such as credit lines or portfolio guarantees, and explore how evaluations can help improving these programs, enabling these institutions to deliver stronger economic impact: higher growth and employment.

The participants will learn the value of monitoring and evaluations in scaling of programs for the private sector and unpack its potential in countries’ progress towards SDG targets. Through a discussion of success and failures, the panel will explore a critical enabling environment that needs to be in place for the private sector to play a key role in achieving SDGs.

Participants will learn about different ECD initiatives from ADB and DEval. While both institutions support national evaluation capacities, their approaches are quite different and complement each other well. In sum, the session combines sharing knowledge and experience with the aim to start a conversation with participants about potential future collaboration to strengthen ECD in countries across the region.

Participants will learn about application of continuum of MELIA approaches in the research-for-development context (R4D), based on CGIAR’s regional work in Asia- bridging and scaling up regional to the international public goods.

In the lead presentation, participants will first learn how data science can be usefully leveraged to assess the relevance of spatial targeting as well as the ability to partner strategically at the country level, and this use will be demonstrated with the case of IEG’s evaluation on the WBG’s Nepal country program in the last decade. The case of Nepal is especially pertinent since both are important considerations for the country’s development needs. The panel will provide perspectives of their institutions on the benefits and caveats of these methodologies.

Participants will gain insights into the evidence from impact evaluations of climate interventions in vulnerable countries, with case studies from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Egypt, and Nigeria, highlighting the role of impact assessment in supporting sustainability-focused policies and interventions based on impact studies from the Green Climate Fund and CGIAR in vulnerable contexts.

Participants will gain insight on the evolving role of evaluation in preparing for an uncertain future. Listen to head of evaluation offices discuss important sources of uncertainty, their implications for evaluation, narrowing down on evaluating regional public goods etc.