HOLIDAY GREETINGS FROM DEFTEDGE

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Warm greetings to you all and best wishes for the holiday season and the year ahead. Whether you are celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the New Year, or simply taking a moment to pause and breathe, we hope this season brings rest, reflection, and time with those who matter most.

As 2025 draws to a close, it feels less like the end of a chapter and more like a year of careful stitching—bringing together ideas, partnerships, and lessons from the past few years into something more coherent and durable. This has not been a celebratory year globally, nor has it been an easy one. Across regions and sectors, 2025 was marked by uncertainty. Progress in development work has been less about inevitability and more about persistence—about choosing to do careful, principled work, especially when conditions make it difficult.

DeftEdge continued to contribute to addressing climate change and environmental issues throughout 2025. This year, we conducted an independent evaluation that is helping shape the next strategic phase of the UN Trust Fund for Tsunami, Disaster, and Climate Preparedness, and presented recommendations at the Advisory Council meeting that are directly informing the long-term strategic direction and resource allocation. Alongside this, we undertook high-profile evaluations and quality assessments for partners, including WFP, ESCAP, UNIDO, UNEP, UNCTAD, ILO, GCF, among others.

From evaluating UNEP’s GCF-funded REDD+ project in Paraguay, including discussions with the Mby’a Guaraní indigenous community in Alto Paraná about their journey toward carbon market certification, to assessing livelihood opportunities for young people across Rwanda’s 30 districts through the Shora Neza project’s work on inclusive agricultural value chains, these experiences continued to shape how we think about and practice evaluation.

We are also experimenting with new approaches to make evaluation findings more accessible and actionable. This year, we began developing technology tools and smart dashboards designed to help partners analyze data and derive meaningful interpretations that promote sustainable development. Equally important has been the continued growth of our people. This year reaffirmed the value of mentorship, collaboration, and inter-generational learning within our teams. Seeing younger colleagues take on more responsibility—supported by experienced evaluators —has been one of the most encouraging aspects of 2025. These transitions may not always be visible externally, but they are essential for sustaining quality over time.

From an organizational perspective, DeftEdge has continued to strengthen its global presence and internal foundations. We are grateful for the partnerships with regional evaluation and data collection firms across Eastern and Western Africa, Latin America, and Asia—including A&B Consulting, Professional Management, Indochina Research, Insight Nexus, Kampo Brasil Research, Angkor Research, and Salaco. These partnerships enable us to mobilize local expertise and multi-country research capacity while maintaining the methodological rigor and analytical independence that define our work. This combined expertise and geographical reach also has strong potential for new opportunities; and we have worked hard this year to build collaborative proposals – with varying degrees of success – in the increasingly competitive business environment faced by our sector.

While the world did not offer much comfort in 2025, there is still reason for cautious optimism. The people we work with—across UN agencies, partner institutions, and communities—continue to show resilience, professionalism, and a willingness to learn. That, more than any single project or output, is what gives us confidence as we move into 2026.

As 2026 begins, we look forward to continuing our contribution to sustainable international development, always learning from the communities and grassroots perspectives that give this work meaning and direction.

Thank you for walking alongside us this year—for your openness, your critical engagement, and your commitment to doing this work well. We look forward to continuing these conversations and collaborations in the year ahead.

Wishing you a peaceful holiday season and a thoughtful, hopeful start to 2026.

With warm regards,
Sarang Mangi