The development of the ASEAN Regional Framework on Evaluation Standards (ARFES) was  an initiative of EvalPartners International and was managed by the International Organisation for Cooperation in Evaluation. The ARFES project was headed by the Malaysian Evaluation Society with four partners from the ASEAN region.     

Developing the ARFES was urgently needed because of the lack of national evaluation standards in the emerging economies of ASEAN countries. There has been an increase in demand for evaluation in the medium to long-term among developing and emerging economies, however evaluation has been constrained by the lack of available evaluation expertise and standards. The intent of the ARFES project was to offer a common generic framework with a broad outline to enable each country to draw up its own national framework on evaluation standards. As a result, Malaysia and Vietnam now have their own national evaluation standard frameworks, based on the AFRES.  

Description of actual services provided by your staff within the assignment: 

The consultation yielded productive discussion and valuable feedback on the ARFES as well as the Malaysian evaluation standard framework. Based on this discussion and feedback, the first draft of the Mongolian Evaluation Standard Framework was developed. The following recommendations and future directions came out of the meeting:  

• The Mongolian Evaluation Network should be expanded and its operations strengthened. 

• Cooperation between national government agencies, non-government organisations, donor organisations and independent consultants should be strengthened.  

• The Mongolian  Evaluation Standards Framework should be improved in terms of language and clarity and circulated once again among the participants of the consultation.  

• Once there is a final version that has been agreed to and accepted by all the parties involved, it should be formally adopted and applied in evaluation practices thereafter.