The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in collaboration with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), is hosting the second edition of the Forum on “Strengthening National Evaluation Capacities for the Africa We Want: Towards Evidence-Based SDG and Agenda 2063 Reporting” which takes place on 10, 11 and 12 December 2019. The event brings together governments representatives, civil society organizations as well as development partners to discuss and agree on action points towards evidence-based reporting on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Agenda 2063.
Based on the positive results achieved in 2018, this joint endeavor aims to raise awareness on the importance of the use of evaluation evidence for decision-making and for reporting on the progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2063. The participants will also discuss on the importance of evidence-based Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) and the relevance of scaling up evidence from evaluations, to inform child- and youth-oriented national policies as a means to accelerate progress towards the two Agendas.
In addition, the Forum includes a training workshop on Embedding evaluation in VNRs during which ECA and UNICEF will deliver capacity development support and facilitate exchange of experiences between the governments representatives and other key stakeholders for sound country-led evaluations and evidence-based VNRs.
For 2020, 15 African governments have so far committed to present their Voluntary National Reviews at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The countries includeBurundi, Cote D’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Gambia, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.