National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL)

The National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL)is a decentralized public agency that coordinates the evaluation of the National Social Development Policy as well as other policies, programs, or interventions related to social development. CONEVAL provides guidelines for evaluations that must be followed by other public agencies that implement social programs. At the same time, CONEVAL can directly contract evaluations on social policies and programs, and provide recommendations for improvement based on available evaluations and research. Among the evaluations implemented or coordinated by CONEVAL, we can find evaluations of the design of social programs, evaluations of processes and strategies, and impact evaluations. Currently CONEVAL is particularly interested in identifying evidence on interventions that could improve indicators of the multidimensional poverty measurement, particularly those around food insecurity.
Member Since: 2009 Country: Mexico Website

Overview of engagement

CONEVAL is a longstanding 3ie member and a leader within the member constituency of government agencies of low- and middle-income countries. CONEVAL has been a leader within 3ie’s membership and has developed strong learning relationships with 3ie members in Uganda and South Africa. As a strong supporter of 3ie and its mission, CONEVAL has helped 3ie to build its profile and the case for rigorous evidence within Mexico and Latin America. CONEVAL is very focused on the idea of connecting policy makers and researchers, while building capacity to generate and use evidence. They are exploring ways to collaborate with 3ie in this area.

Examples of 3ie engagement

  • Community of practice: CONEVAL invited 3ie to participate in the first Mexican Evaluation Week held in 2015. During the event on linking evidence to policy, Mario Picon, Senior Evaluation Specialist, participated in one of the main panels.
  • 3ie services: 3ie and CONEVAL are collaborating on a rapid evidence map on promising interventions and policies to reduce food insecurity to support CONEVAL’s work on food insecurity. CONEVAL’s staff will be involved in the search and screening process.
  • Peer learning: CONEVAL hosted government officials from Uganda as part of a peer learning study tour organized by CONEVAL and two other 3ie members: SINERGIA and the Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Uganda.
  • Community of practice: At CONEVAL’s invitation, Mario Picon, Senior Evaluation Specialist, participated in a panel discussion that was nationally televised on Mexico’s Canal 11. The panel included representatives of CONEVAL, CLEAR Latin America, and AMEXID. It focused on the importance of evaluation beyond transparency and accountability.
  • Bursary programme: Representatives of CONEVAL received 3ie bursaries to attend the seventhandeighth meetings of the Impact Evaluation Network of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA). The meetings were held in Lima, Peru and Washington DC, respectively.

Mind the gap: from evidence to policy, co-organised by 3ie,was the first major conference on rigorous evidence held in Mexico. Despite its social problems, the federal government in Mexico has developed different strategies to evaluate programs and measure poverty. Public evaluations are available in the Ministries’ websites including CONEVAL, the agency in charge of the evaluation of social programs in a transparent and objective way. In this regard, Mexico has achieved significant progress in terms of measuring the impact of social policy
Gonzalo Hernández Licona
Executive Secretary of Mexico’s National Evaluation Council (CONEVAL)