Highlights from EvalColombo

Highlights from EvalColombo

2 min.

EvalColombo2018, historical first ever parliamentarians global event on evaluation was successfully held from 17-19 September in Colombo.

The inauguration of the event was graced by His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka, Hon. Prime Minister and the Hon. Speaker of the Parliament. The event was attended by over 200 international delegates including over 100 parliamentarians from 70 countries. The first day was to share experience on national evaluation policies and systems while the second day was to raise awareness on evaluation of SDGs and commitments for strengthening evaluation cultures through the parliament. 

At the end of the first day, the Hon. Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe hosted the delegates at his official residence, the Temple Trees, where the National Evaluation Policy of Sri Lanka was launched. Joining the few countries in the world that has a National Policy on Evaluation, Sri Lanka is the first country in the South Asian region to introduce a National Evaluation Policy.

The closing session was held at the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 19th Sep where the Colombo Declaration was signed. The Colombo Declaration for which all participants have made commitment to will be the main policy document in future for parliaments to address evaluation. The Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation hopes to follow up with all the countries regarding the Colombo Declaration commitments and all your efforts to strengthen parliaments in this regard. 

Few quotes

"Evaluations are decisions based on credible, useful, evidence-based information that allows parliamentarians to receive findings, recommendations and lessons learned for the decision making process on National Policy and Legalizations."

Hon. J.M. Ananda Kumarasiri - Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka, Chair, Sri Lanka Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation

"Both sides in government and opposition have to work together to serve the country, and they can do that much better with evidence than opinion based information."

Caroline Heider - Director General and Senior Vice President, World Bank Group

Please find updates of the event on the website. 

The final report of the event will be ready soon so that it will be shared widely.

Asela Kalugampitiya and Ada Ocampo, GPFE Secretariat