On Friday 13 November 2020, Hon. Abbas Imbassou Ouattara, Vice Chairperson of the African Parliamentarians’ Network on Development Evaluation (APNODE), and Debazou Yantio, representing Independent Development Evaluation at the African Development Bank (IDEV), participated in the 2nd edition of the Ivorian Evaluation Morning hosted by the Réseau Ivoirien de Suivi et d’Evaluation (RISE). The event took place at the National Assembly of Côte d'Ivoire under the theme “Partners at the heart of promoting monitoring and evaluation in Côte d'Ivoire: Roles and actions,” as part of the EvalPartners Flagship Program on Strengthening National Evaluation Systems.
A variety of stakeholders attended the event, including parliamentarians, development partners, representatives of civil society organizations, academia as well as local media. The aim of the event was to explore the current evaluation landscape in Côte d'Ivoire and discuss how the evaluation of public policies can be strengthened and put into practice.
During the opening session, Hon. Imbassou laid out the most recent legislative changes related to evaluation in Côte d'Ivoire as well as the role that parliamentarians and the National Assembly can play in driving the evaluation agenda forward in the country, in particular since the adoption of evaluation-related Articles 93 and 117 of the 2016 Constitution. Mr. Mousso Okoma, Vice-President of RISE, Mr. Marcelin Cissé, Director General of Planning and Development at the Ministry of Planning and Development, and Mrs. Soukeynatou Fall of UNICEF also spoke during the opening session, which was followed by presentations from RISE, the Ivorian government and the National Assembly on a variety of topics related to evaluation practice in Côte d'Ivoire.
There was broad-based consensus during the follow-up discussions that a strong legislative framework, while essential and a positive step, is not a sufficient condition for effectively including program evaluation in annual work plans on a routine basis. It was also agreed that the Ivorian Evaluation Morning will become an annual event hosted by the National Assembly of Côte d'Ivoire to bring together the Ivorian evaluation community to exchange on best practices, improve coordination and to discuss how to overcome challenges collectively.
The APNODE Secretariat was represented at the forum by Tomas Zak.
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