The Wageningen University Centre for Development Innovation in the Netherlands organises the 8th annual ‘M&E on the Cutting Edge’ conference on 17-18 of March 2016.
Partnerships for development are crucial. Global efforts have focused on the Sustainable Development Goals, as the issues being tackled are increasingly recognised as complex. Collective action is unavoidable as the post-2015 UN development agenda stresses. Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) are ‘a form of governance, a way in which groups of people can make decisions and take action for the collective good, be it at local, national or collective scale. They range from short consultation processes to multi-year evolving engagements, with more or less structure or formal organisational arrangements’. The enthusiasm for partnerships is not yet matched with solid understanding of when partnerships are needed and what their specific role is in sustainable development efforts. Neither is it clear how to monitor the functioning of partnerships, or evaluate their promised impact in creating value at multiple levels. Partnerships are not always effective, since conflicts arise, powers are abused, downward accountability hardly takes place, and learning and communication are often inadequate. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) can help strengthen multi-stakeholder partnerships. M&E can support the learning and decision making processes, holding partners accountable or in assessing the functioning of partnerships and how they can reach more sustainable results.
This international conference is organised by the Centre for Development Innovation (CDI), Wageningen UR, and Learning by Design, in collaboration with the PPPLab. The two-day conference (17-18 March) will connect the realities of those working in practice with ideas from people who are thought leaders on the partnership topic. Workshops, clinics and presentations will ensure a lively and thoughtful opportunity to question one’s own practice and find inspiration for new ideas.
Visit the conference website for more information about the programme and registration.
