CLEAR (Regional Centers for Learning on Evaluation and Results)

CLEAR is a global team. We aim to improve policy through strengthening monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems and capacities. We innovate, test and learn locally and regionally, and we share and inspire globally. CLEAR is a global M&E capacity development program that brings together academic institutions and donor partners to contribute to the use of evidence in decision making in developing countries. CLEAR strengthens M&E capacities at the local and regional levels. But its network design, with multiple centers, offers an opportunity for “the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts.” CLEAR has set up centers in Brazil, East Asia (China), South Asia (India), Latin America and Caribbean (Mexico), Francophone Africa (Senegal), and Anglophone Africa (South Africa). The Centers are housed in academic institutions and have the mandate to deliver and to help replicate effective M&E capacity development services. The centers offer a menu of services to strategic partners and clients in their regions, including government, civil society, the private sector, and other M&E capacity building providers. The services include technical assistance to build client M&E systems, knowledge and research services, and training courses. The Centers work at all three levels of capacity building for M&E – enabling environment, organizational, and individual. CLEAR’s Global Hub, housed within the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), anchors the overall program. The Global Hub provides funding, strategic, and other direct support to the regional Centers, to support their performance. It also promotes the cross-center learning and learning for the wider M&E community. CLEAR donors include the multilateral development Banks (Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank), the Rockefeller Foundation, and bilateral donors (Australia, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom). Donors provide both funds and strategic guidance, as part of their involvement in the governance bodies.