Caribbean Evaluators International News

A new space for Caribbean evaluation

Valerie Gordon — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:49:37 GMT

The inaugural Caribbean Evaluation Space, hosted by the Caribbean Development Bank in Barbados from 1–3 September, brought Caribbean governments, evaluators, development institutions, academics and emerging professionals together around strengthening national evaluation systems, Caribbean leadership and evidence use.

Its establishment signals growing recognition that Caribbean evaluation requires sustained regional platforms—not simply occasional projects or events.

A partner in the event, the main takeaway for the CEI is how the relationships and commitments generated through the conference can be translated into continuing professional development, stronger institutional systems and greater visibility for Caribbean evaluators.

The opening ceremony set the stage for the 3 days. CDB President, Daniel Best explained how strong institutions are essential to helping Caribbean countries navigate an increasingly complex development landscape.

"Today, evaluation is no longer a technical exercise conducted at the end of a project. It has become a strategic function of leadership and learning institutions," he said. "Independent evaluation is central to ensuring that institutions remain accountable for the resources entrusted to them and, more importantly, for the development results they promise to the people they serve."

President Best noted that as Caribbean countries confront climate change, fiscal pressures, digital transformation, and shifting demographic realities, evidence-informed decision-making has become indispensable.

"In such an environment, intuition alone is not enough. Experience alone is not enough. Good intentions are certainly not enough. We need evidence that helps us invest wisely, learn continuously, and adapt quickly," he explained. "Strong organisations are not those that never make mistakes. They are those that learn the fastest."

Head of CDB's Office of Independent Evaluation, Dr. Roberto La Rovere, said CEvalSpace reflects a growing recognition that the Caribbean must increasingly draw on its own experience and evidence to shape development solutions.

"What we are building is not limited to these few days together. We are creating a space where policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and emerging leaders can learn from one another, strengthen a culture of evaluation and evidence, translate knowledge into action. The Caribbean needs leaders who can ask hard questions, generate the evidence, and use it to strengthen accountability, improve performance, and build stronger institutions."

Upcoming training | How do we really measure humanitarian action success?

Valerie Gordon — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 23:54:27 GMT

On Wednesday, February 25 at 10am UTC-5, the CEI in partnership with ALNAP, will host an online training workshop, “What does ‘success’ in Humanitarian Action look like? Adapting the OECD evaluation criteria to the evaluation of humanitarian action,”

In 2025, ALNAP published "Adapting the OECD Criteria for Humanitarian Action Evaluation." The new guide responds to a humanitarian landscape that is more complex, protracted, and interconnected than ever before. This 120min interactive session will explore the evaluation criteria as well as the three priority themes introduced by the guide. It will also introduce to the intricacies of applying the criteria when evaluating humanitarian action, and some of the key issues to consider.

Facilitators will be Sarah Gharbi and Mae Albiento.

Sarah joined ALNAP in 2023. She has over fifteen years’ experience from the humanitarian and development sectors. Sarah joined ALNAP after several years at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) where she worked as a Senior Evaluation Advisor. She has also worked for several humanitarian NGOs and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, as a researcher and evaluator, as well as with community-based programming.

Mae joined ALNAP in 2022. Mae has more than a decade of experience in the humanitarian and development sector in the Philippines. She worked as an evaluation and research consultant for local and international NGOs focusing on child protection, gender and women empowerment, livelihoods, and disaster response and management. Mae has academic background in evaluation, public policy and management, development studies, and psychology.

Register now at https://www.caribeval.org/event-6576953

The session is Part 2 in the two part series Monitoring and Evaluation for Humanitarian Action hosted by CEI and ALNAP. Part 1: From Action to Evidence: Navigating the challenges of the evaluation of Humanitarian Action, was held on January 29, 2026 and is now available on the CEI You tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-D-stXPHEY&t=42s>

RELAC Conference "Towards a Regional Evaluation Agenda for Sustainable Development," September 3-5, 2025

Valerie Gordon — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 05:01:57 GMT

The ReLAC virtual conference "Towards a Regional Evaluation Agenda for Sustainable Development," which will take place from September 3rd to 5th of this year. The conference will feature 50 sessions, with English translation available for all sessions on the second and third days. Find more information here (LINK).

Fee: USD 20 (50% discount for ReLAC members)

For more information go to: https://relac.net/v3/conferencia-2025/

Launch of ALNAP 's new guide for adapting the OECD criteria for the evaluation of humanitarian action

Valerie Gordon — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 03:46:01 GMT

Join ALNAP for the launch of its new guide on evaluating humanitarian action on September 16 at 3pm UK time/ 10am EST.

ALNAP ’s updated guide on adapting the OECD criteria for evaluating humanitarian action will be launched on September 16, 2025.

This new guide builds on the widely used 2006 publication and responds to a humanitarian landscape that is more complex, protracted, and interconnected than ever before. It covers seven criteria — relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, coherence, coverage and inclusion, and inter-connection — but brings updated definitions, clear explanations, and guidance tailored to humanitarian contexts.

The guide has been shaped by extensive consultation across languages, regions, and organisations - and is designed to be both practical and flexible, whether you’re managing, commissioning, or conducting evaluations.

At the launch event, there will be an introduction to what’s new in the guide, an explanation on how to use it in real-world evaluation contexts, and an exploration of three priority themes that emerged during consultation (putting people affected by crisis at the centre, locally led humanitarian action, and the environment and climate crisis).

The Future of Evaluation Dialogue Coming soon!

Valerie Gordon — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 18:18:09 GMT

Join the second Future of Evaluation dialogue

The second Future of Evaluation dialogue on 23 September 2025, held in observance of the International Day of Peace (21 September), will delve into the critical role of evaluation in navigating the complexities of global instability and humanitarian crises and fostering peace and resilience. This dialogue will discuss adaptive and context-sensitive evaluation, which, by adhering to the "Do No Harm" principle, offers a blueprint for more responsive and ethical evaluation everywhere.

The session will also cover the use of mixed methods and innovative data sources to understand complex environments, demonstrating the broader shift toward integrating technology and diverse data into all evaluative practices. It will also focus on locally led evaluation, underscoring the importance of community participation for both effective peacebuilding and for shaping evaluation to be more equitable in the present and the future. The dialogue will also address capacity building for evaluators working in these challenging contexts.

Register

Launch of Book on Caribbean Evaluation Culture

Valerie Gordon — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 16:19:00 GMT

Our esteemed colleague, Dr. Nadini Persaud, Senior Lecturer in Evaluation, Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management; Deputy Dean, Postgraduate Affairs and Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados and Director of Professional Development and Training at the CEI, is launching her insightful new book, "Strengthening Evaluation Culture in the English-Speaking Commonwealth Caribbean – A Guide for Evaluation Practitioners and Decision Makers in the Public, Private, and NGO Sectors”, on November 15 at 5:50pm Barbados time.

The live event will be held at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management, in Training Room 3 and the First Citizens Room. For those unable to attend in person, participation will be facilitated via Zoom at : https://zoom.us/j/91629577629.

This book directly addresses the unique challenges in Evaluation across the Caribbean and provides essential guidance for practitioners and leaders in all sectors. We consider it auspicious that this work has come to fruition book at a time that the CEI is observing 10 years of existence.

Let us come together to support and celebrate a work that aims to empower our community and strengthen our regional Evaluation capabilities!

Youth in Evaluation Week 2024

Valerie Gordon — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 18:25:37 GMT

The second Youth in Evaluation week 2024 will be held from 8 to 12 July 2024, building on the success of the first Youth in Evaluation week.

Aligned with the UN Summit of the Future 2024, this gathering of the global evaluation community will amplify dialogue on intergenerational solidarity for transformative evaluation and build momentum for enhancing meaningful youth engagement in evaluation.

The overarching theme for Youth in Evaluation week 2024 is ‘Upholding Youth in Evaluation standards’.

The events at the week will explore six dimensions of the standards - leadership and accountability, practice, advocacy and capacity building, knowledge management and communication, human resources and financial resources - for advancing intergenerational partnerships in evaluation.

On July 12 at 2:00pm GMT-5, the Caribbean Evaluators International YEEs and FEEVAL+SDGs training school for YEEs in the English-speaking Caribbean will be hosting the roundtable discussion,

"Island Insights: Calling All Evaluators and the Evalu-curious in the Caribbean. What does the Future hold for the field?"

Register at https://www.caribeval.org/event-5775396 to join this event.

gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2024

Valerie Gordon — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 23:43:41 GMT

Get ready for an incredible week of learning and innovation!

gLOCAL Evaluation Week is back, running from Monday, June 3rd to Friday, June 7th, under the inspiring theme: "Evaluation and Transformational Change: Balancing Ambition and Realism."

This year is extra special as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the CEI's founding!

To mark this milestone, we’re hosting three unmissable events:

Tuesday, June 4 12:00pm (GMT-5) :The Road to Adoption and Implementation of the Results Based Management Approach- the CARICOM experience

Thursday, June 6 12:30 (GMT-5): The Role of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning in Non-Governmental Organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean

Friday, June 7, 12:30pm (GMT-5):The Relevance of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) to driving transformation through local financing initiatives for development

Join us for a week filled with insightful discussions, groundbreaking ideas, and opportunities to network with leaders and innovators in the field of evaluation. Don't miss out on this exciting chance to be part of the transformation!

Global Evaluation Week

Valerie Gordon — Wed, 24 May 2023 06:15:39 GMT

gLOCAL Evaluation Week powered by GEI is a unique knowledge-sharing event, connecting a global community of people across sectors and regions. Over the course of a week, participants from all over the world join events - in their neighbourhood or across the ocean - to learn from each other on a vast number of topics and themes. Allowing participants insight into how their work fits in with regional monitoring and evaluation (M&E) ecosystems and the larger international M&E community, gLOCAL helps to inspire and energize a global movement - individuals and organizations who value the power of evidence to improve people’s lives.

To make the most out of this knowledge-sharing space, and in consonance with the growing effort to advance Monitoring and Evaluation practices and culture in the Caribbean, a series of events are being co-organized by the CARICOM Secretariat, Caribbean Evaluators International (CEI) and UWI SALISES, with the participation of the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI), with the purpose of gathering stakeholders to continue discussing relevant topics that will help advance in fostering an enabling environment in the region for sharing, recognizing, designing, and implementing MEAL practices.

The events will be featured in the space in the next few days. See also https://www.globalevaluationinitiative.org/glocal/about

gLOCAL Evaluation Week May 29-June 2

Valerie Gordon — Wed, 24 May 2023 05:29:30 GMT