AI and Evaluation: Key takeaways from recent #EvalforEarth discussions

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EvalforEarth’s recent discussions present a consistent message: Atificial intelligence can strengthen evaluation practice, but only when evaluators remain firmly responsible for judgment, validation, ethics, and contextual interpretation. Across the community’s webinars, technical guidance, and discussion materials, AI is treated not as a substitute for evaluators, but as a set of tools that can improve efficiency, … Read more

Green Industry, Global Ambition: The Belém Declaration and What Comes Next

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At COP30 in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025, a significant new commitment took shape on the global stage. Backed by over 40 countries and international organisations, the Belém Declaration on Global Green Industrialisation was formally launched at a leaders’ roundtable on industrial decarbonisation — signalling that the world’s industrial transformation is no longer a side … Read more

Circular by Nature: A New Policy Agenda for Bio-Based Materials

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Circular economy and bio-based materials policies have developed in silos for too long. This joint report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Latin America and Caribbean Circular Economy Coalition proposes a unified five-strategy framework, backed by real business cases, that could unlock USD 10 trillion in annual opportunities by 2030 and deliver a third … Read more

A Digital Bridge Between Europe and Kenya: Opportunities for Connectivity, Youth and Business

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(tl;dr) EU–Kenya Digital Partnership boosts connectivity, skills and innovation, linking youth, schools and SMEs to affordable high-speed internet, AI collaboration and new digital jobs for sustainable, shared growth. Kenya has become the first African country to establish a formal Digital Dialogue with the European Union, a milestone reached in March 2026 that positions this East … Read more

Seeds, Sovereignty and Europe’s Responsibility

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Report from the EU Food Justice Forum, Brussels, 9 June 2026 In a world where multinational agribusinesses increasingly treat food systems as financial markets, smallholder farmers from Zimbabwe, rice breeders from the Philippines and EU parliamentarians gathered in a Brussels conference centre on 9 June 2026. The civil society-organised EU Food Justice Forum placed one … Read more

From Aid Shock to Resilient Systems: Civil Society Sustainability in a Shifting Development Finance Era

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(TL;DR) This issue paper by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) argues that the 2025 USAID stop-work order was not merely an external shock but the predictable consequence of deeply entrenched dependency mindsets within West African civil society organisations (CSOs). The paper diagnoses five limiting thought patterns that hinder resource mobilisation and long-term sustainability, … Read more

Evaluation Insights: EU Recovery and Resilience Facility

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming (TL;DR) The EU Recovery and Resilience Facility, the EU’s EUR 723.8 billion pandemic recovery instrument, is broadly on track at its halfway point. By end 2023, EUR 225 billion had been disbursed and roughly 75% of planned milestones met, with economic modelling projecting a GDP boost of up … Read more

Plastic Packaging and Food Waste in Latin American Retail

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(TL;DR) A GIZ-commissioned study examines how plastic packaging practices in supermarkets across Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico intersect with food loss and waste (FLW), concluding that material substitution alone cannot solve either crisis: systemic redesign of retail models, supply chains, regulatory frameworks, and consumer engagement must be pursued simultaneously and coherently, since up to 56% of … Read more

Green economy and rural livelihoods in Africa: pathways towards an inclusive transition

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An EADI webinar shows that a genuinely green economy in rural Africa depends on three things working together: locally affordable climate-smart practices for smallholders, coherent national and regional policies that connect research with practice, and climate finance that explicitly supports a just transition with strong community agency. It highlights how programmes like the Great Green … Read more

AI in Monitoring & Evaluation – Glocal Evaluation Week 2026

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(tl;dr) The Global Evaluation Initiative has released a landmark white paper timed to Glocal Evaluation Week 2026. It gives M&E professionals a structured framework for asking better questions about AI, and the answers may surprise you. Barely a week passes without a new AI tool, guidance note, policy statement, or webinar landing in the inboxes … Read more

Skills on the Move: Key Takeaways from the DC dVET BarCamp

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(TL;DR) On 6 May 2026, the DC dVET kicked off its anniversary BarCamp webinar series with “Skills on the Move: How Migration Intersects with Dual VET”. Keynote speaker Helen Dempster (CGD Europe) argued that TVET investments and labour mobility pathways must be designed together from the start, not treated as separate tracks. A panel covered … Read more

Evaluation Insights: Strengthening Ukrainian SME Competitiveness Under Wartime Conditions

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Series Evaluation Insights for Policy and Programming ReACT4UA / EU4Business — Central Project Evaluation GIZ, Commissioned by BMZ | Co-financed by the EU and Norad | Ukraine | 2020–2025 Context Ukraine’s path toward EU accession has unfolded against the backdrop of one of the most severe crises in contemporary European history. The ReACT4UA / EU4Business … Read more