IDEAS has partnered with many organisations over time. These partnerships have progressively become more formal in nature, being instrumental for the accomplishment of the strategic objectives of the Association. The first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed with the Malaysian Evaluation Society, and expressed a mutual wish to attend each other’s events and collaborate on other issues, such as professionalisation. Motivated by this first initiative, taken by the then Vice-President Susan D. Tamodong, the IDEAS Board developed a standard MOU to address professional issues for the Association. At the same time, the Board decided to discontinue partnership agreements with national Voluntary Organisations for Professional Evaluators (VOPEs), of which there are many, and instead to focus on formal partnership agreements with regional associations and networks, and thematic networks of a global nature.
Regional collaborative arrangements have been signed, either for a specific purpose of organizing a Conference or for long term collaboration:
- The Agreement with Partners for the Joint Conference on Evaluation for the Sustainable Development Goals, including regional networks ReLAC and RedLACME (as conference co-conveners), and a number of others as hosts such as the Government and University of Guanajuato (read the document in Spanish or in English). This partnership culminated in the well-attended conference in Guanajuato, Mexico, on 4-8 December, 2017.
- An MOU with the Asian and Pacific Evaluation Association (APEA).
- An MOU with the Caribbean Evaluators International (CEI), signed during the IDEAS Annual General Meeting on 8 December 2017 in Guanajuato, Mexico.
- An MOU with the Czech Evaluation Society, to provide a framework of cooperation and facilitate collaboration between the Parties, on a non-exclusive basis, for the 2019 IDEAS Global Assembly in Prague.
- An MOU for the IDEAS - CES Secretariat, for the provision of the administrative services.
- IDEAS is also active in Evalpartners and is a member of IOCE.
DECLARATIONS
The Bangkok Declaration
The Bangkok Declaration on Principles on National Evaluation Capacity for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era seeks to capture an emerging body of shared understanding on lessons and priorities for evaluation practice in the era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help guide joint action in future support of national evaluation capacity.
It was adopted on 30 October 2015 by the participants of the Fourth International Conference on National Evaluation Capacity, convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) and the 2015 Global Assembly of the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) in Bangkok. The Bangkok Declaration is also available in French and in Spanish.
The Prague Declaration
The Prague Declaration on Evaluation for Transformational Change was unanimously adopted on 4 October 2019 by the assembled participants of the Conference Evaluation for Transformative Change: Bringing experiences of the Global South to the Global North, which gathered the 2019 IDEAS Global Assembly and the Third International Conference on Evaluating Environment and Development. This Declaration includes strong support for further work on transformational evaluation, to be undertaken in partnership, exploring power relations and promoting inclusiveness, with respect for rights and responsibilities.