World Bank Group

Abstract

It is with great pleasure that I welcome International Program in Development Evaluation Training 2012 participants to Carleton University for the 12th annual session of this unique and intensive professional development program. You will be joining an active and engaged alumni body that now numbers more than 3,000 and is working in countries and communities around the globe to translate the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness principles into practice: enhancing local ownership, mutual accountability, and transparency and managing for results through better evaluation. The Faculty of Public Affairs is proud to support your efforts and commitment to strengthening evaluation capacity as part of a long-term effort to reduce global poverty and achieve sustainable growth. From our teaching faculty and students to our university administrators, the Carleton community has enjoyed its partnership with the World Bank and learned much from the presence of IPDET participants on campus. Many of you have stayed in touch, and we value those relationships. Past participants have found that Carleton University provides a positive learning environment and a warm and welcoming " home away from home. " I know that you will as well. While you are here, I invite you to learn about the resources available at Carleton University for further study and about Ottawa, Canada's capital. As the new director-general, Evaluation, for the World Bank Group, I am pleased to invite you to attend IPDET 2012. I have worked in evaluation in recent years with the World Food Programme, International Fund for Agriculture Development, and Asian Development Bank, among others. In each position, I have been keenly aware of the need to build evaluation capacity in the international development community in part through high-quality, relevant, and intensive training. I have long recognized IPDET as an outstanding source of development evaluation training for its breadth and depth of coverage. I have also noted IPDET's commitment to its own evaluation and its use of the evaluation findings for continuous improvement, which has kept it strong over the past 11 years and counting! Now it is my pleasure to champion our collaboration with Carleton University on IPDET. I know that the skills and insights you will gain at IPDET 2012 will help you to produce stronger evaluations of development interventions. In turn, these evaluations will better inform decision makers of which programs are achieving results and which are not, and you will be contributing to improving development …