Posted by Michel Lazare
The World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group, together with partner institutions,1/ is launching a new multiregional training and learning initiative to "contribute to strengthening the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and performance management (PM) capacity of countries and their governments to achieve development outcomes."
The new initiative CLEAR (Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results) "will support (1) regional centers to provide in-region capacity development and technical assistance services, and (2) global learning to strengthen practical knowledge-sharing on M&E and PM across regions." The CLEAR website provide the following details on these two dimensions of the initiative:
Regional Centers
The four Regional Centers envisaged by CLEAR "will be housed in existing academic/training institutions in Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and South Asia. The institutions will be selected competitively. The centers will provide customized, demand-driven, cost-effective, and sustainable capacity development, including training, advice, evaluation research, and other knowledge services. Government agencies, development institutions, and donor and civil society organizations, among other clients, will be able to access regionally based high-quality knowledge and expertise. The centers will focus on applying technical knowledge to address practical problems."
Global Learning
"CLEAR’s learning program helps centers in different regions to acquire technical and practical knowledge and to compare and share knowledge on the effectiveness of specific tools and interventions in different settings (e.g., countries, regions, sectors). CLEAR supports two sets of activities: (1) development and dissemination of high-quality knowhow through knowledge products and multiregional workshops; and (2) peer-to-peer learning through communities of practice, networks, and other knowledge fora on what works, what does not work, and why."
A fuller description of the program is available by clicking on the following link: Download AboutCLEAR[1]
Our former IMF FAD colleague and PFM Blog author, Marc Robinson, indicates on his website that he is "grateful to have been asked by the World Bank to develop the [CLEAR] performance budgeting courses, which are expected to get under way either late this year or next.
The four regional centers will be located in China, Africa, South Asia and Latin America. They will be based on existing universities or training institutions, one of which will be the reputed Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center in Shanghai. The services of the centers are expected to be available to government agencies, development institutions, donor and civil society organizations, among other clients."
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1/ CLEAR’s partners include the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the UK's Department for International Development (DfID),and the World Bank. The secretariat is housed in the Independent Evaluation Group of the World Bank,
