Thank you, Hari. Thank you to you and your team in the Office of Foreign Assistance Resources for organizing today’s event to celebrate the International Year of Evaluation.

It is a pleasure to welcome you all to the State Department. This forum is an opportunity to mark the progress we have made during the International Year of Evaluation, and to redouble our efforts in the year ahead. As Hari noted, this Forum complements evaluation events that have taken place all around the world throughout this year – from Brazil to India, from South Africa to Nepal and most recently in Belgium. And this official torch from the United Nations [acknowledge torch on table in front of you] has been making its way around the world as part of these events. I’m very pleased and honored that our forum today has been deemed “torch-worthy.”

I think we should see this torch as both symbolic of our enduring commitment to advancing our evaluation methods and to light a fire under us to keep improving! Either way, I am grateful for an opportunity to champion evidence-based decision making. Throughout my career in government -- on Capitol Hill, in the White House, and here at the State Department -- I have seen the critical role that evaluation plays in good governance. The concept is really quite simple – as stewards of taxpayer dollars; and as public servants who care deeply about the impact of government programs; and as citizens who want their government to be effective – we need to know what works. And we also need to know what’s not working and to fix it.

Evaluation is essential to U.S. policy – whether it is domestic, economic, foreign or development policy. For example, in September the global community adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims to end global poverty by 2030. These global goals seek to enhance peace and security, advance economic growth and development, and promote democracy and human rights around the globe. And all of us involved in implementation of these goals and targets understand that without robust evaluation and data we’ll be unable to chart our progress, hold ourselves and the global community accountable and focus on areas that need additional attention.

Yesterday at the White House we celebrated World AIDS Day, and I had the opportunity to highlight the Administration’s focus on empowering adolescent girls and young women in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The reason President Obama announced a new target specific to women and girls is because the data tells us that it is one of the most significant investments we can make to end the global epidemic. Because despite all the progress we have made on HIV/AIDS, more than 1,000 girls and young women are infected with HIV every day.

At the Department of State and at USAID, we are working hard to extend the depth and breadth of our use of data and evaluation, and to more systematically employ them in policymaking and program design. We use data and evaluation to inform our foreign policy, to shape our assistance programs, to deliver better services, and to communicate results with the public and Congress to show that the investment that the American people make in our policies and programs bolster our national security and promote economic prosperity.

Earlier this year Secretary Kerry unveiled the 2015 Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which recognized the importance of evidence-based decision making to the future of diplomacy and development. Right now as we are implementing the QDDR’s recommendations we are standing up a “data hub” to help us better integrate big data into our major policy priorities.

We are also re-doubling our efforts to better integrate evaluation into the Department’s strategic and budget planning. While we were preparing our budget this year, I had the opportunity to discuss evaluation practices with every single Assistant Secretary at State and Assistant Administrator at USAID. And, we have updated our evaluation policy and created new tools for accountability, learning, and transparency.

These initiatives reaffirm the Department’s commitment to embrace innovation while strengthening the foundation for consistent measurement and evaluation. We are working hard, but we also acknowledge that we have more work to do. We must keep the flame alive. We are operating in an environment of scarce resources. And unless we are able to prove to OMB, the Hill, and the American people that we are using their resources effectively, we are at risk of losing them.

In the break-out sessions that follow, and in your daily work, I challenge all of you to step outside of your comfort zone; work across agencies to build innovative evaluation techniques; and examine the evidence when you make policy decisions and design programs.

I am appreciative of the UN for creating the “year of evaluation,” which inspires us to learn from what others around the world are doing, and to reaffirm our own commitment. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Indran Naidoo, Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of the United Nations Development Program, to the Department of State.

[Mr. Naidoo presents torch].

Mr. Naidoo, thank you for presenting us with the UN evaluation torch. The torch signifies our enduring commitment to evaluation as a means to more effective, inclusive, and transparent assistance and policy. I look forward to “passing the torch” to the next evaluation event.