In many less developed democracies Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs) face the challenges of low demand for evaluation and the resulting low economic capacity of national evaluation communities. The VOPE model that evolved in well-developed democracies is not directly applicable under these circumstances, so a new model has to be developed. EvalPartners Initiative, launched in 2012 by the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation and UNICEF with support of international donors, seeks to facilitate the development of this new model by building a global community of national VOPEs able to effectively influence policy makers and public opinion to promote evaluation as the basis for evidence-based policy. EvalPartners activities include: (a) facilitation of peer-to-peer collaborations among VOPEs; (b) development of a toolkit on VOPE institutional capacity; (c) generation of new knowledge on VOPE operation; (d) promotion of enabling environment for evaluation; (e) promotion of equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluation.