IEA, in coordination with the evaluation offices of the Rome-based food and agriculture agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) jointly organized a technical seminar entitled “Enhancing the evaluability of Sustainable Development Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”, which took place on 17-18 November 2015 at IFAD Headquarters, in Rome.
The objective of the seminar was to contribute to a shared understanding of how SDG2 could be evaluated and identify actions needed to enable evaluations of SDG2 through the United Nations system and other international organizations or countries themselves.
Over 170 participants representing CGIAR, UN agencies, think tanks, universities, and donor agencies came together to participate in the two-day event, which was webcast and followed by more than 1600 people online. The presentations and break-out groups provided a space for intense and engaging discussions on coordinating efforts on enhancing the evaluability of SDG2, and advancing the future evaluation agenda, focusing on four thematic topic areas:
1: The relevance of ‘new metrics’ for the evaluation of SDG2 — data revolution and innovative approaches for capturing qualitative dimensions of human wellbeing
2: Partnerships and development actors — dealing with the increasing complexity of development processes and partnerships
3: National M&E systems and data availability — building on the progress made and addressing existing (capacity) gaps
4: Demand for and use of evidence from evaluation — understanding the political economy of evidence and developing a joint evaluation agenda for SDG2.
One of the key issues that emerged from the seminar was the need to use evaluation as an agent of change. Participants highlighted the need to better understand the the inter-relationships between the SDGs devise a theory of change to evaluate developments being expressed in SDG2 in relation to other SDGs. The four Rome based agencies also agreed on promoting a better understanding of the evaluation needs based on the particular focus and expertise of each agency – from hunger reduction to agricultural sustainability, improved nutrition, and food security.
