The Community of Evaluators-South Asia (CoE-SA) and the Evaluation Association of Bhutan (EAB), in collaboration with the Government of Bhutan, will host the Evaluation Conclave 2025: Future-Ready Evaluation: Integrating Voices and Localizing Evaluation for Global Impact.

A key highlight of the Evaluation Conclave is the Summit for the Future of Evaluation, organized in collaboration with the Eval4Action campaign and its co-leaders: the UNFPA Independent Evaluation Office, the EvalYouth Global Network, the Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation (GPFE), along with the Community of Evaluators-South Asia (CoE-SA), the Evaluation Association of Bhutan (EAB), the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), and the Government of Bhutan.

The current evaluation discourse is undergoing a transformation that emphasizes inclusivity, equity, and adaptability to future challenges. This transformation highlights the importance of building a future-ready evaluation ecosystem that not only addresses current development needs but also anticipates and responds to emerging global trends. Central to this transformation is integrating diverse voices, including those from communities, citizens, young people, and community-based organizations. By bringing local experiential knowledge to the forefront of evaluation practices, the Evaluation Conclave 2025 & the Summit for the Future of Evaluation aim to foster a discourse on evaluation that is both responsive to local cultures and forward-looking to maximize global impact. This approach ensures that evaluation practices remain relevant, resilient, and impactful in shaping inclusive, sustainable development on a global scale.

The core theme of the event, “Future-Ready Evaluation – Integrating Voices and Localizing Evaluation for Global Impact,” emphasizes the dual need to improve context-relevant evidence while preparing evaluation practices for the challenges and opportunities of the future. Rooted in local knowledge, this approach empowers communities to understand better and shape their own development trajectories. Ensuring evaluations are both for the people and by the people fosters inclusive change and promotes equity. Achieving this, however, requires a shift in mindsets, along with the development of institutional and individual capacities, to fully recognize and value local expertise while integrating insights from global thought leaders.

At the same time, the future of evaluation is being shaped by global opportunities and challenges, such as demographic changes, conflicts, and crises, and new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics. These innovations offer unprecedented opportunities to enhance data collection, analysis, and real-time decision-making, making evaluations more dynamic and responsive. However, their integration in the evaluation practice must be carefully managed to ensure ethical use and to mitigate biases that could undermine inclusivity and equity. Together, localizing evaluation and leveraging future-ready approaches can create a transformative, globally impactful evaluation ecosystem that remains both contextually relevant and forward-looking.

Additionally, the role of youth is becoming increasingly vital in shaping the future of evaluation. Youth-led initiatives and inter-generational partnerships can bring fresh perspectives and innovative approaches to evaluation practices. Promoting evaluation education and training at various levels, from schools to higher education institutions, is essential to cultivate a culture of evaluative thinking and prepare the next generation of evaluators.

In South Asia, where the development of national evaluation policies is still underway, the focus on localized and future-oriented evaluation practices is particularly relevant. The region’s economic dynamism contrasts with persistent challenges such as food insecurity, gender inequality, lack of universal access to education and health, and environmental sustainability. Addressing these challenges requires robust, localized evaluations that leverage both traditional knowledge and cutting-edge methodologies.

As South Asian nations come together to advance the evaluation discourse, converging localized evaluation with a forward-looking approach ensures that evaluation practices remain relevant, inclusive, and impactful. The Evaluation Conclave and the Summit of the Future of Evaluation 2025 serves as a platform to explore these themes, fostering dialogue and innovation for a more inclusive and sustainable future.