Proceedings from the Fourth International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of UNDP in partnership with the Royal Thai Government (RTG) organized the 4th International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) which took place in Bangkok, 26-30 October, 2015. The conference was jointly organized and conducted in parallel with the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) Global Assembly 2015, and brought together 450 participants from 100 countries, which made it the largest evaluation event globally by government and country participation. The theme of the conference this year was "Blending Evaluation Principles with Development Practices to Change People's Lives". The conference focused on how Governments can develop the necessary national evaluation capacities to evaluate sustainable human development, and participants deliberated on inputs to a post-2015 global evaluation agenda to support the implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) . What emanated from the conference was a rich dialogue on building national evaluation capacities to tackle the challenge of monitoring and evaluating the Sustainable Development Goals. The conference wrapped up with the Bangkok Declaration which seeks to capture an emerging body of shared understanding on lessons and priorities for evaluation practice in the era of the SDGs to help guide joint action in future support of national evaluation capacity. These proceedings provide insights into presentations and papers that were a part of the conference.