Events

Most development interventions, especially in natural resource management and climate change adaptation, operate within highly complex socio-ecological systems shaped by dynamic interactions between ecosystems, institutions, and human behavior. However, in practice, many interventions still rely on linear models and simplified theories of change defined for specific time periods and contexts. This creates a disconnect between the systemic nature of development challenges and how evaluations are designed and conducted. In recent years, this challenge is further intensified by ongoing poly-crises, including climate emergency, political instability, biodiversity degradation, shifting donor priorities, and increasing uncertainty in governance systems. These conditions make intervention boundaries more fluid and outcomes more unpredictable. As an independent evaluation practitioner working across developing countries with multilateral and bilateral agencies, this paper is grounded in extensive engagement with such complexities in real evaluation practice. More

Environmental risk from climate change, biodiversity degradation and pollution continue to be among most serious threats for democracies worldwide. Risks are deeply interconnected and mutually reinforcing. Yet evaluation practice continues to regard natural and human systems as separate domains. More

The Climate Strategy, Monitoring, Impact, Learning and Evaluation (SMILE) Community of Practice is a diverse network of practitioners seeking to reshape the strategy, evidence, knowledge, and learning ecosystem in climate philanthropy. Launched in 2023, and now with 130+ active members from around the world and a broad array of friends and allies, the community builds on the power of collective learning to push the current frontiers in thinking and practice, foster innovation, amplify emergent practices and support uptake at scale. This session will unpack what is specific about SMILE in climate work, and its implications to how it is implemented. More

Evaluating sustainability is a complex issue that lacks regularity and depth beyond an assessment of ‘results sustained’. This session will present lessons from the design and application of an innovative sustainability scorecard on a large scale and multi component resilience programme in Pakistan (FCDO Building Resilience and Addressing Vulnerability to Emergencies or BRAVE). This session offers to explore how innovative concepts can strengthen evaluations, particularly how practitioners address the important assessment of programme sustainability. More

The need for green energy and climate adaptation is increasingly creating pressure on Indigenous land. Sápmi, the home of the Sámi, an indigenous population to the Arctic, faces continuous pressure to cede land for mining, erection of wind farms and infrastructure. Evaluations are used to assess the sustainability of green energy projects. However, many of these evaluations have failed to meaningfully portray how these projects affect local Indigenous communities. Instead, conflicts are increasingly taken to court. More

Minigrids are seen as a promising solution for bringing electricity to rural areas, particularly in isolated regions with low population density. Given known challenges of low energy uptake and costly maintenance, promoting productive uses of minigrid energy has emerged as a potential solution. This article provides new evidence from mini-grid investments by Energizing Development, one of the largest energy access programs, between 2016 and 2021 in Senegal. More

The French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) is one of the France 2030 plan operators, an ambitious €54 billion government investment programme aimed at closing France’s industrial gap, investing heavily in innovative technologies, and supporting the ecological transition through its commitment to dedicate 50% of fundings to projects contributing to the decarbonisation of the economy. ADEME is also mandated to carry out France 2030 evaluation agenda on the “decarbonisation of the economy” dimension. ADEME thus conducts evaluations across different timeframes: ex-ante, to select projects; (2) in-itinere and ex-post, to monitor project performance, to evaluate the relevance of the targeting choices of this mission-oriented innovation policy and the alignment of France 2030 actions with the national ecological planning framework, to measure the programme’s impacts, and to evaluate the achievement of its overarching objectives. More