Background

Strengthening result-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and improving development performance are increasingly becoming a focus of world attention. One of the major challenges facing almost all developing countries is the lack of capacity to monitor and evaluate how effectively public funds are being used. To address these challenges and to keep pace with international trends, in early 2007, PRC's Ministry of Finance, the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank and the Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center (AFDC) jointly launched the Shanghai International Program for Development Evaluation Training (SHIPDET).

Objectives

SHIPDET is committed to promoting development evaluation through capacity building in PRC and other developing countries in Asia through a range of activities, such as training workshops, research, and network building. It aims to build development evaluation systems that are adaptable to local situations in Asia. It also aims to promote sharing of knowledge and experience in development evaluation and to establish an effective network of development evaluation practitioners.

About the training

The training consists of two parts--the core course which will be held from 26 November-2 December and the special topic course on 4-9 December. Both core course and special topic course are now open for registration.

Ray Rist and Linda Morra-Imas, former World Bank senior evaluation officers, will be the instructors of the core course. They will cover the basic methodology of monitoring and evaluation, complete with theory, tools, case studies, discussion groups and readings.

The special topic course will focus on impact evaluation to be delivered by Quihui and Neil Rankin on 4-5 December. The performance-based budgeting topic will be discussed by Marc Robinson on 6-7 December. Real case sharing from SHIPDET alumni will be facilitated by experts from World Bank, ADB, and Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center on 8-9 December.

Participants

Each year, SHIPDET conducts training workshops in spring and fall. The spring workshop is designed for participants from PRC, primarily government officials responsible for development evaluation. The fall workshop is designed for international participants, primarily officials responsible for development evaluation from government agencies in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific, as well as representatives from bilateral and multilateral development agencies. SHIPDET trains about 120 participants annually.