The first Asian Evaluation Week, held in Xi’an in China from 5-9 September 2016, brought together international evaluation experts from multilateral development banks in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America; and heads of evaluation units of UN agencies.
On Day 4 of the event, a session, organized and led by IDEV, presented Evaluation work from the AfDB perspective on the theme of "Private Sector for Development: Making Growth Happen". Rafika Amira made the keynote presentation and was a panelist;.and Karen Rot-Munstermann moderated the session. The session aimed at sharing evaluative evidence on the role played by the private sector in spurring economic growth and discussing how development partners can work together to maximize the private sector’s contribution to development.
Rafika Amira presented the preliminary findings of a joint report currently being finalized by IDEV and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) which synthesizes the wealth of existing evaluative evidence in 33 evaluations of donor support for private sector development. The presentation aimed at sharing evaluative evidence on the role played by the private sector in spurring economic growth and discussing how development partners can work together to maximize the private sector’s contribution to development. This was followed by a panel discussion also including Caroline Heider (Director General and Senior Vice President, Evaluation, Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank Group) and Hau Sing Tse (Executive Director for Canada, China, Korea, Kuwait and Turkey, African Development Bank, and Former chair of the AfDB Board’s Committee on Operations and Development Effectiveness).
The panel discussed on issues including:
(i) the challenges that hamper private sector development, and what policymakers can do to address them;
(ii) which approaches and financing mechanisms to support private sector development work and don’t work in promoting private sector growth; and
(iii) how development partners can work together with the private sector to create shared value, particularly in relation to job creation, growth and poverty reduction in the local economy. Questions from the audience focused on public-private partnerships, and how to stimulate pro-poor private sector growth.
IDEV representants participated in the following sessions:
- Monday 5 Sept. 4 PM, Session 8: Evaluating economic and social impacts of transport projects: Rafika Amira moderated the session.
- Tuesday 6 Sept. 2 PM, Session 19: Strengthening the demand and use of evaluation in policy making (on the role of Parliamentarians and National Evaluation Policies in supporting the national evaluation functions): Karen Rot-Munstermann was a panelist, representing IDEV as the host of the APNODE Secretariat.
- Thursday 8 Sept. 9 AM, Session 27: What works in promoting private-sector growth? Evidence from evaluation: organized and led by IDEV. Karen Rot-Munstermann moderated the session, and Rafika Amira gave the keynote presentation as acted as a panelist.
- Thursday 8 Sept. 11 AM, Session 30: Evaluating mega-regional cooperation initiatives in trade, infrastructure, and public goods: Rafika Amira was a member of the discussion panel.