On April 7, CGD convened a consultation on the Evaluation Gap initiative in Delhi with co-hosts Suman Bery from the National Council of Applied Economic Research and Rajat Gupta from McKinsey & Co., Inc. Meeting participants, including NGO heads, policy researchers, private sector leaders and officials in international agencies, agreed on the need to step-up impact evaluation with coordination and cross-learning, development of quality standards, and more (and more flexible) funding.
Participants stressed the importance of engagement of potential users of evaluation results in the process of setting priorities; the value of building evaluation capacity in developing countries; and the need for "methodological pluralism" to address evaluation questions in different contexts. Participants endorsed a communiqué articulating a set of principles as a guide to action.