On 9th August 2016, Hon. Buddhika Pathirana submitted a motion proposing to the Parliament of Sri Lanka to have a National Evaluation Policy and evaluation system for the country. It was a historical day for our parliament and the great debate held was very interesting. His speech was excellent (the video will be available soon, but in Sinhalese). Then other MPs join the debate by supporting the motion. It was surprised to see how some MPs fluently talked about SDGs and evaluation. One MP had been in the occasion where SDGs were endorsed at UN. The minister responsible for M&E and SDGs made the final speech and mentioned that the government will take all necessary actions to strengthen evaluation including the National Evaluation Policy and implementation of SDGs. Our appreciation for Hon. Buddhika Pathirana for the historical move in the parliament. This was initiated by the EvalGender+ initiative in Sri Lanka and Parliamentarians Forum for Development Evaluation. Many thanks to Hon. Kabir Hashim, Chair of GPFE leading this and project team of the EvalGender+ initiative team. Hope this will be an encouragement for many other countries also to promote NEP through the parliament and parliamentarians.
