ABSTRACT
This final chapter draws on the findings and conclusions of recent evaluations from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) and on the evaluation process to provide relevant lessons for environmental and evaluation practitioners. It addresses two key questions: how can we consider the environmental-social-economic interlinkages in designing programs and adopting systems-based approaches to evaluate the outcomes and impacts of interrelated or integrated interventions while recognizing potential synergies and trade-offs? What lessons do the independent evaluations of the GEF offer for the design and evaluation of interventions dealing with global environmental issues?
This chapter's lessons specifically address the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. GEF interventions in all focal areas – biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, and chemicals and waste – have implications for improving human health and other socioeconomic outcomes. The chapter also offers lessons related to achieving transformational change and scaling up, for long-term sustainability of outcomes, and for partnerships through policies, institutional systems, and governance. Furthermore, this chapter includes lessons for better evaluation, global factors for evaluators, and lessons on the use of a systems approach to evaluating complex relationships.
