The Community of Evaluators – South Asia (CoE-SA), in collaboration with the Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) of the Government of Bhutan successfully held the 4th Evaluation Conclave (Evaluation Conclave 2017) in Thimpu, Bhutan from 6 – 9 June 2017 (both days inclusive). The event was held at two venues; the main venue was Le Meridien Hotel with City Hotel as the subsidiary venue.

This Conclave follows three successful Evaluation Conclaves organised by the Community of Evaluators – South Asia in 2010 (New Delhi), 2013 (Kathmandu) and 2015 (Kathmandu). They have come to be recognized as the flagship event of CoE-SA, and have provided numerous benefits to its members as well as to the broader evaluation community: a chance to network and partner with evaluation societies and experts from across the globe, and as an opportunity to build capacity in evaluation theory and practice.

The primary theme of the Conclave, Well-being and Sustainable Development – New Frontiers in Evaluation entails the relationship between well-being and sustainable development with a view to demonstrate the importance of evaluations in these areas. The Conclave 2017 was an opportunity to examine 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development from the point of view of human well-being looked at from economic, social, and environmental objectives, rather than from a narrow agenda of economic growth alone. Well-being can be easily linked to some of the key SDGs; for example, mitigating poverty (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), working towards equality of income and wealth in society (SDG 10), promoting environmental stability and sustainability, and fostering peace and inclusive society.

Conclave 2017 was a forum for government, civil society, donors and evaluation fora to deliberate on a number of areas, such as:

• Use of innovative methods and tools in evaluations [Use of innovative methods and techniques for conducting evaluations, collecting data and analytical representation; Innovative approaches to understand social changes.]
• Fostering governance, accountability, credibility and transparency [credible and transparent evaluations; observance of ethical norms relevant to different pluralistic cultural environments]
• Gender and equity [Ensuring good quality, equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluations and their use in decision-making]
• Environmental sustainability [wise use of natural resources and promoting environmental sustainability]
• Poverty reduction [Exploring the analytical underpinnings of programmes supporting poverty reduction, both income and non-income dimensions, and on the processes for engaging with stakeholders to support poverty reduction]
• Inclusiveness and hard-to-reach [Evaluation findings to generate learnings and to contribute to the evidence base on good humanitarian practices and building resilience in the most fragile and conflict-affected situations]
• Partnership [forging lasting partnerships in evaluations, including community/ stakeholder participation]