Send Print Tweet

Public dialogs on aid have shifted away from a focus on funding to understanding the actual results. Governments want to hear about the direct impacts of their development co-creation activities, and the general public expects a higher degree of transparency and accountability as to where and how effectively their tax money is being spent. In this context, evaluators play an important role in supplying credible evidence and informing decision making. But in order to achieve these objectives, evaluation findings must be communicated effectively to reach different audiences.

The OECD DAC Network on Development Evaluation (EvalNet) is elaborating good practice tools for communicating evaluation results to facilitate their use for learning and accountability. A DAC senior-level seminar on managing aid  in April 2011 sought to understand how best to connect with policy makers and highlighted innovative approaches to sharing evaluation results. The Network's 12th Meeting the following June featured a joint session with the Development Centre's Informal Network of Development Communicators (DEVCOM) to delve further into these issues. 

Evaluation and communication experts again joined forces in a workshop on “Communicating Evaluation Results” organised by the UK's DFID and DEVCOM, in collaboration with EvalNet. The workshop created a forum where communication and evaluation experts could share experiences in using research and evidence from evaluation. During the workshop, the two communities sought to collaborate on facilitating the broader use of high-quality evidence to inform policy and practice, support accountability and communicate to various audiences the complex issues of effectiveness, impact and risk.

For more examples of how the DAC EvalNet is communicating about evaluation and sharing findings with the broader development community, visit our social media sites Twitter and Facebook or check out the Evaluation Insights series.