We have the pleasure to present the second issue of the newsletter with very interesting news. EvalPartners third Global Evaluation Forum was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and EvalGender+ network was instrumental in mainstreaming equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluation (EFGRE) in the forum. Also the EvalGender+ Management Group had a network meeting at the Global Forum where future priorities were discussed.

More over, the network joined with several partners including United Nations Evaluation Group, Africa Gender and Development Evaluators Network, African Evaluation Association and UN Women to make the EFGRE the second largest stream at the AfrEA conference held in Kampala, Uganda in March. The network will also actively support the EvalPartners new flagship progarm on national evaluation policies and systems to ensure EFGRE is mainstreamed. Enjoy reading the newsletter.

Marco Segone and Svetlana Negroustoueva, Co-chairs

The EvalGender+ Management Group participated in the EvalPartners Global Evaluation Forum and had a network meeting where the EvalGender+ priorities for coming years was discussed. The GvalGender+ Management Group agreed to slightly reorganize Task Forces to streamline efforts and be more lean. The revised four Task Forces are:
1. Capacity Building
2. Fundraising and Networking
3. Communication and Advocacy
4. Knowledge Management
What remains unchanged are the two key principles at the core of EvalGender+ movement: (1) building on the progress/ what works so far, and (2) country-based (demand must come from country, not come up with blueprint formula, and contextualizing pathways of change)
Within EvalPartners partnership and beyond, EvalGender+ would remain a focal point for EFGRE and related advocacy, knowledge generation and sharing, technical training, South-South cooperation, and motivation/ commitment to change. Currently the EvalGender+ priorities are being translated in to concrete plans.
Most importantly the network reassessed  and identified key priorities for the EvalGender+ network in line with the key themes of SDGs and main pillars of the Global Evaluation Agenda 2016-2020 (Please see 15 questions related to the key themes and main pillars above). This clearly explains how the network is going to respond to both UN's 2030 agenda and the 2020 EvalAgenda.
For more information, please contact Co-chairs of the network.

Burkina Faso is one of the 10 beneficiary countries for the EvalGender+ Network with UN Women support to implement activities that promote equity-focused and gender- responsive evaluation. The project is coordinated by the Burkina Faso Monitoring and Evaluation Network (ReBuSE), the Ministry of Women Affairs, Solidarity and Family and the Parliament of Burkina Faso.
Three main activities are planned under the project:

1. Workshops on evaluating SDGs with an EFGR lens for the staff of the Ministry of Women, National Solidarity and Family, members of ReBuSE including EvalYouth members (YEE), members of thematic interest groups (TIG) on gender in the ministries, members of parliament and civil society members.
2. A forum of parliamentarians for evaluation to highlight the importance on the use and the demand for evaluation findings that help them to vote laws and texts for reducing gender inequalities and inequities.

3. Dissemination of good practices related to equity-focused and gender responsive evaluations on SDGs through editing a book on best practices and presentations to colloquium.

With the support of UNICEF and EvalGender+ for facilitators, two training sessions were held from June, 27 to July, 02, 2016. For the two sessions, 72 participants including 31 females, 12 YEE, 6 parliamentarians attended the training. In addition, the forum of parliamentarians for evaluation was held on February, 24, 2017. Panels focused on topics include: (i) Evaluability of Burkina Faso government development program (2015-2020) within an equity-focused and gender responsive lens, (ii) parliamentarians and the practice of evaluation: integrating gender and equity in evaluation, (iii) Challenge to institutionnalize evaluation in Burkina Faso.

On the dissemination side, the project manager who is a YEE presented a paper on Burkina Faso project learnings and challenges during the African Evaluation Association conference held in Kampala, Uganda. The editing of the book on best practices is ongoing.

The conference Strand “Gender Equality and Equity Focused Evaluations” during the 8th African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) International Conference had the 2nd highest number of accepted papers, panels, posters and workshops during the conference, after the “Evaluating Health” Strand. In total six workshops were successfully delivered during the 2.5 days of pre-conference workshops, 38 papers were discussed under 4 different themes during 7 conference sessions, and 7 posters were presented. In addition the conference strand included a Keynote speech from Marco Segone, Director of the UN Women Independent Evaluation Office on the role of equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluations in the context of the SDGs. UN Women also provided travel bursaries to 9 conference participants from 8 different countries who presented their work during the international conference.

It brought together a wide audience from governments, Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs), researchers and academia, evaluation commissioners and practitioners to share evaluation approaches and experiences. It also provided an excellent opportunity for networking and for enhancing individual evaluation capacity in the area of gender and equity responsive evaluation.

The conference strand was co-managed by UN Women, EvalGender+, UNICEF, African Gender and Development Evaluators Network (AGDEN), African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), and the Institute for Reproductive Health, Georgetown University (IRH).

EvalGender+ network has recognizef the importance of participatory principles in promoting equity -focused and gender-responsive evaluation. This work is inspired by the SGDs call for "no one left behind". In an e-discussion held on evaluation of SDGs on the Gender & Evaluation community several development practitioners stressed that local accountability is key to sustainability. Involving stakeholders including communities in evaluation can foster local ownership and people are more likely to act on recommendations generated by themselves.
Thus, we aim to deliberate on whose voice is included, how and when during evaluation process. We would like to unpack the terms 'participation', 'collaboration' and 'listening'. What do people mean when they say that they are engaging stakeholders? We would like to uncover the approaches and safe space which enhance the depth and range of participation. In a nutshell, What helps in ownership of evaluation by communities and stakeholders?

As the first step we are holding an online consultation on participatory, collaborative evaluations particularly from equity lens to derive learnings and share with a wider audience. We invite your experiences online:
English
French
Spanish

This work is coordinated by Luisa Belli and Rituu B Nanda. For more details and to join the groupe please email  rituubnanda@ feministevaluation.org

The European Evaluation Society (EES) Gender and Evaluation Thematic Working Group (TWG) was created in 2012 and it has focused its activities on connecting people and organizations interested in gender and evaluation, mapping resources in this regard and promoting evaluation from a gender perspectives through different kinds of publications.

Two publications of this EES TWG: The first one is the ‘Guidelines for Including a Gender+ Perspective in VOPEs: Innovating to Improve Institutional Capacities’, a project funded by EvalPartners and carried out in collaboration with Gender Equality and Human Rights Thematic Group of the RELAC . This resource contributes to more gender-responsive VOPEs and is available. The second one is the ‘Decalogue of evaluation from a gender perspective’. The main goal of this Decalogue is to make clearer what an evaluation from a gender perspective means.

Nowadays, the EES Gender and Evaluation TWG is focused on the following priorities and activities:

1.            CONNECT: Share information with TWG members, new evaluation methodologies, vacancies, projects, events, publications, training opportunities and all initiatives that promote feminist evaluations and evaluations with a gender equality perspective through an online newsletter.
2.            INFLUENCE: Map the European Union institutions and disseminate information about gender and evaluation.
3.            EXPAND: Join forces with other working groups in evaluation associations across the world and feminist organizations, such as the AEA Feminist TIG and AWID.
4.            LEARN: Strengthen capacity on gender equality & evaluations through a series of webinars to enhance mutual learning. The first one will be carried out in Autumn.

If you would like to join our activities, do not hesitate to email to Priya Álvarez (papriyax@gmail.com) in order to be included in our GoogleGroup’s listserv and receive all the information about them.

GENOVATE is an action-research project which aims to ensure equal opportunities for women and men by encouraging a more gender competent management in research, innovation and scientific decision-making bodies, with a particular focus on universities. The project is based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in six European universities
and brings together a consortium with diverse experience in gender mainstreaming approaches. In tandem with the implementation of GEAPs.

The present Guidelines aspire to foster a reflection on how to evaluate gender structural change at University and also be a useful tool for all those planning to carry out an evaluation of a
GEAP. This document synthesises the main ideas and steps to take into account while evaluating GEAPs, based on the findings of the evaluation training process led by the partner in charge of the
evaluation, as well as the GEAP evaluation practices in each partner institution, and the specific support provided to each GENOVATE institutional partner by the evaluation team.

The EvalGender+ network meeting was held at the AfrEA conference in Kampala, Uganda, on 29th March. The meeting was organized by Dr. Florence Etta representing AGDEN. Sixteen members of the EvalGender+ Management Group led by Marco Segone, Director of the UN Women  Independent Evaluation Office, attended the meeting. Some new members who attended the AfrEA conference also attended this side meeting.

Marco Segone extended the invitation to everyone to be part of the EvalGender+ global group through participating in the different activities, Task Forces and forums at the Gender and Evaluation online community. 
Thanks to team led by Fabiola Amariles, Ravi Ram, Rachel Sittoni and Silvia Salinas Mulder for drafting the interesting AfrEA statement on Gender, Equity and Evaluation which was also discussed at the meeting. This statement focuses on the changes that are still required to promote sensitivity to gender and equity among evaluators and within the evaluation profession. By promoting this aspect of professionalization, evaluation will strengthen its impact and contributions to the SDGs.