New trends in developments evaluation

This working paper was conceived to stimulate debate on new trends in the evaluation function within the Post-Paris new Aid architecture and the UN Reform, and to explore the status of the evaluation function in CIS countries. Though this paper is not a technical manual or handbook, the authors made every effort to offer practical proposals on how to implement a democratic approach to evaluation. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, Segone presents the evolution of the evaluation function in the context of UN Reform and a changing Aid architecture. This part is mainly based on the discussion and outcomes of the IDEAS 1st Biennial Conference held in New Delhi in 2005 and conceptual discussions within the UN. Samuel Bickel presents an assessment of the status of the evaluation status worldwide, based on the address he delivered at the 2005 IPEN Conference held in Kazakhstan. Quesnel introduces how the growing professional evaluation organizations are instrumental to strengthen the evaluation function worldwide. Segone then presents thoughts on the scope of the evaluation function. In the second part Segone proposes a strategy for improving the evaluation function through
strengthening a pro-evaluation culture and a democratic approach to evaluation. Kushner, one of the world’s leading thinkers on Democratic evaluation, presents his thinking on the relationship between Evaluation and Democracy. In the third part, six members of IPEN, coordinated by Kuzmin, analyse the evaluation function in CIS countries, giving important information on its status and trends. This piece is particularly important as it is one of the few existing documents on the evaluation function in CIS countries. Finally, the annexes give practical information on how to access international evaluation resources via the Internet and present the UN Evaluation Norms and Standards and guidelines on how to develop evaluation ToR.