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Thursday, 15 October 2026
8:00 am - 9:15 am ET
How can evaluation drive more sustainable solutions to end poverty?
Ending poverty requires more than short-term gains in income and living conditions. It requires sustainable solutions that address the root causes of poverty, help people escape it for good, and protect them from falling back. Evaluation can play an important role in this effort by identifying what works in poverty reduction, for whom, under what conditions, why, and whether the gains last.
This Future of Evaluation dialogue will examine how evaluation can generate evidence that informs more sustainable solutions to end poverty in all its dimensions. It will also explore how evaluators can better address the structural drivers of poverty, partner with affected communities to generate evidence, and drive more inclusive, resilient solutions. The dialogue will consider how evaluation can better respond to climate change, economic shocks, and rapid technological change. Ultimately, it will ask how evaluation can move beyond measuring progress to informing the actions that end poverty and improve people's lives.
Moderator
Khalil Bitar is President of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), Co-Chair of EvalPartners, and co-founder and co-lead of Eval4Action. He steered the launch of the Global Evaluation Agenda 2.0 and has led or contributed to over 100 evaluations in 20+ countries, specializing in fragile and conflict-affected settings, where extreme poverty is increasingly concentrated. He also founded the Palestinian Evaluation Association, co-founded and co-chaired the EvalYouth Global Network, and is a founding trustee of the International Evaluation Academy.
Panelists
Dr. Claudia Maldonado serves as the Director-General for Evaluation and Poverty Measurement at Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). She served as Academic Councillor at the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) during the 2020–2024 period and previously served as Director of the CLEAR Latin America (2011–2016). She has served as a member of UNICEF and UNDP’s International Panel of Expert Evaluation Advisers, the advisory group of the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI), and the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET).
Dr. Vidya Diwakar is an Senior Research Fellow at Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Deputy Director of the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network. She leads mixed-methods research and evaluations on poverty dynamics, resilience, intersecting crises and multi-sectoral approaches to poverty reduction across regions of sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia.
Houqi Hong is Principal Evaluation Specialist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He has over 20 years of experience in evaluation and results measurement in international development and has led or contributed to more than three dozen evaluations at ADB and the World Bank. He holds advanced degrees in economics and management from Tsinghua University and Georgetown University.
Noelle Uloko is Director of Operations at Cloneshouse, with over 10 years’ experience in MEL business development, project delivery, partnerships, training, youth development, and institutional strengthening. Through the Cloneshouse Internship Programme and other youth initiatives, she has helped young people build practical skills, access professional pathways, and participate meaningfully in development.
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