As part of the many events planned for the International Year of Evaluation, Mexico had a La Semana de Evaluación (Mexico Evaluation Week 2015) from June 15 – 19. The goal of the meeting was to create synergies between the government sector, society, the academic community and stakeholders to promote transparent monitoring systems in order to encourage a dialogue among stakeholders on evaluation.
The Hunger Project-Mexico was eager to get involved with this exciting initiative. Fernando Gaal, The Hunger Project-Mexico’s M&E Officer, participated on a panel entitled “Evaluating International Cooperation for Development: Political Institutions.” The event was in the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Fernando was one of seven panelists–the only from a civil society organization.
The purpose of his participation was to share the link between grassroots development and evaluation, highlighting how M&E can contribute to self-sufficiency in communities and be used to report where funding is most effective. During his participation, Fernando shared his experience in Participatory M&E (PM&E) at The Hunger Project Mexico: the role of knowledge in empowering partners to guide their actions and make decisions, the linkage between PM&E and traditional M&E, and how M&E tools contribute to build skills in community members (M&E animators). The panel was a great opportunity to promote The Hunger Project’s practices on PM&E to a wider audience of stakeholders from various sectors within Mexico.
La Semana de Evaluacion 2015 was organized by the CLEAR Center for Latin America, the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE), the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).