The event was organized jointly by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the GEF Evaluation Office and various other partners, such as AFD, FFEM, IUCN and IDEAS.
In opening the conference Mr. Maged Elias, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Egypt, welcomed the impressive range of delegates on behalf of H.E. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak.
Amongst the climate change experts in attendance, representatives were drawn from international organizations, academia, NGOs and civil sector organizations.
Mrs. Monique Barbut, CEO of the GEF, launched the meeting with a keynote address. She explained the conference was aimed at identifying good practices and information gaps in evaluations of climate changes and development projects and programmes. A second aim was to improve and realize the potential for evaluations to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.
A key issue was the need to capitalize on emerging best practices in evaluating mitigation of climate change. These best practices should be further developed into frameworks and guidelines that are internationally accepted by the professional community of evaluators.
On adaptation and vulnerability, participants signaled a continuing need for improved information exchange and practical approaches.
The urgency of the issue requires evaluators, practitioners and researchers to become involved in design and in empowering communities as well as governments.
Moreover, there is a need to establish an issues driven community of practice, a global network of evaluators, practitioners and researchers working on climate change and sustainable development. It is through this network like this that support can be given to - and further develop - evaluation capacity in developing countries.
The Conference also presented a valuable opportunity for practioners to come together and discuss the establishment of a knowledge repository of climate change evaluations.
A large interest in the repository was shown and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the WB Library and the GEF Evaluation Office are now working towards ensuring that this repository becomes a reality.
Many significant findings emerged from this conference and Rob D. van den Berg, Director of the Evaluation Office, outlined some of them in his final summary statement, which included conclusions and action points on how to proceed.
The closing statement as well as presentations, discussions, reports and webcasts can be found at: www.esdevaluation.org. |
