“The review of national evaluation systems and capacities in Asia Pacific" initiative is intended to generate a body of knowledge to guide national evaluation capacity development for the SDGs. Specifically, it aims to determine successes and lessons learnt from national evaluation systems; foster peer learning among stakeholders; and inform regional and national evaluation capacity development guidance through the production of readiness assessments at the country level.

As part of the initiative, IRIM team has conducted ‘Review of National Evaluation System and Capacities - Case study of Mongolia’ from January to October 2019.

In order to develop regional-synthesis report, the case study of Mongolia was conducted under the integrated framework and methodology, which was produced by regional team. In accordance with the main goal, IRIM team aimed to reach the following objectives:

• To map national evaluation system (institutions, actors, relationships and processes), including both government and non- government organizations;
• To identify lessons, good practices, challenges and success factors for evaluation capacity in Mongolia;
• To produce an assessment of the readiness of national evaluation system for both government and non- government organizations to support progress towards the SDGs; and
• To present the research findings and recommendations on further development of national evaluation capacity towards the SDGs for national evaluation key stakeholders;

According to the research findings , the overall result of the readiness assessment of Mongolia’s evaluation capacity was 2.5 – moving from the level of ‘emerging’ to ‘moderate’. The demand for evaluation was assessed the highest among the seven capacity factors, while adequacy of resources was the lowest. When respondents were asked to name the most challenging issues in the national evaluation system, the financial resources, absence of evaluation standards and leadership at managerial level were named as fundamental factors.

Figure 1. Overall result of the readiness assessment of National Evaluation System

The research findings were presented to the National Development Authority, the Mongolian Evaluation Network and other relevant key stakeholders and discussions were held to strengthen the capacity of the national evaluation capacity systematically. Moreover, based on the research findings the action plan was developed.

The IRIM team would like to thank to Tje Monitoring, Evaluation and Internal Audit Department of the Cabinet Secreteriat, Monitoring and Evaluation specialist of UNICEF Ms.Khurelmaa Dashdorj and all the participants for taking their time to share their views and experiences in our research.