Evaluation serves as "springboard into action" towards UN's sustainable development goals: UNDP official

Evaluation plays a pivotal role in understanding urgent global challenges and serves as a "springboard into action" towards achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, said Isabelle Mercier, director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Independent Evaluation Office, on Monday. 

Mercier made the remarks during an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) when she was in Beijing attending the 2024 National Evaluation Capacities (NEC) Conference which was held in China for the first time.

Mercier stressed the necessity for closer collaboration especially with China to comprehend the evolving evaluation as the world is facing multiple crises.

"It's natural when we think about crises and emergencies that we think about the need to act with urgency, when we see the effects that war is a frequent natural disaster have on the lives of individuals. In many corners of the world, the need to act assumes an even larger importance. There is a huge, vast amount of high-quality evaluation coming out of here that I think is new to the community of people that I'm used to working with. And that sort of brings some alarm bells for me and made me think that we need to collaborate more closely with China and understand the evolution of evaluation. As it's happening here, it's happening very rapidly and it's happening was very impressive results," she said. 

Mercier also called for solidarity and leveraging tools like evaluations to tackle the world's most pressing challenges.

"In troubled times as the ones we're living conferences like NEC or to me also a springboard into action. If we look at the overall progress made against the sustainable development goals, we face a quite sobering reality with only 17 percent of the targets met. But this is not the time for despair. It's the time to come together and use all the tools we have available, including evaluations to address the world's most pressing challenges," she said. 

Under the theme of "Responsive Evaluation: For Government, For Inclusion, For the Future," the conference was co-hosted by the China International Development Cooperation Agency, the UNDP and the Global Evaluation Initiative from Sunday to Friday in Beijing's Yanqing district.

Evaluation serves as "springboard into action" towards UN's sustainable development goals: UNDP official

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that the top priority is to make every effort to prevent the conflict from reigniting in the Middle East and maintain the hard-won momentum of the ceasefire. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in a phone conversation with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar.

During their phone conversation, Dar briefed Wang on Pakistan's mediation efforts to facilitate talks between Iran and the United States, and expressed appreciation for China's efforts to promote peace. He also voiced Pakistan's willingness to maintain close communication and coordination with China to jointly play a constructive role in realizing regional peace.

Reiterating China's principled position, Wang commended Pakistan for facilitating a temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran and for hosting the Islamabad talks, where it played a fair and balanced mediating role.

The current ceasefire is fragile, and the regional situation is at a critical turning point, said Wang.

He urged the international community to step up efforts to promote peace and dialogue, and take a clear stand against any action that could undermine the ceasefire or escalate confrontation.

The five-point initiative for restoring peace and stability in the Gulf and Middle East region proposed by China and Pakistan reflects the consensus of the international community on promoting peace and can continue to serve as a direction of efforts toward resolving the issue, said Wang.

China welcomes Pakistan's greater role, and stands ready to work with Pakistan and the rest of the international community to continue making positive contributions to an early restoration of peace and stability in the Middle East, said the Chinese minister.

Chinese FM calls for preserving hard-won momentum of ceasefire in Iran