UNW/2012/12

United Nations

Executive Board of theUnited Nations Entity
for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of WomenDistr.: General
2 October 2012
Original: English

Second regular session of 201228-30 November 2012
Item 2 of the provisional agenda
Organizational matters

Evaluation policy of the United Nations Entity for Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Summary
The present document sets out the evaluation policy of the United Nations
Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN -Women), which
enters into force on 1 January 2013. The policy governs the independent evaluation
function of UN-Women and applies to all initiatives supported and funds
administered by the Entity. It is aligned with the norms and standards of the United
Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG), but is tailored specifically to the unique mandate
and role of UN-Women to conduct evaluations responsive to gender equality andwomen’s rights and to support coordination, coherence and accountability withrespect to gender equality and the empowerment of women in the United Nations
system.
The policy lays out the purpose of evaluation in UN-Women, the Entity’s
tailored definition of evaluation and the principles and standards that guide its
practice. It covers both the coordination role of UN-Women with respect to United
Nations system-wide evaluations concerning gender equality and the corporate anddecentralized evaluation of the operational, normative support and coordination work
undertaken by the Entity. It presents the evaluation criteria to be applied in
UN-Women evaluations and the process and parameters for selecting evaluations toensure adequate evaluation coverage. The policy also directs the management anduse of evaluation, the establishment of a quality assurance system, and evaluation
capacity development. Finally, the policy outlines clear roles and responsibilities
with respect to evaluation at all levels of UN-Women and the process of the external
evaluation of the evaluation function and of the Entity at the organizational level.

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The Executive Board may wish to:• Welcome the development of the UN-Women evaluation policy consistent with
General Assembly resolutions 64/289 and 62/208 and the UNEG norms andstandards• Endorse the present document as the policy statement on the evaluation
function of UN-Women• Acknowledge with appreciation the steps taken by UN-Women to ensure an
independent, credible and useful evaluation function• Request UN-Women to ensure compliance with the evaluation policy throughthe establishment of mechanisms for the implementation of its principles andcommitments and for increased capacities in the areas of programme d esign,monitoring and evaluation, and to report on a regular basis on the progress
made in continuing to strengthen the evaluation function and improve the useof evaluation.

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Introduction
1.
The policy set out in the present document governs the evaluation function of
the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women(UN-Women). It establishes a framework for ensuring an independent evaluation
function that provides credible evidence with respect to the performance of
UN-Women in terms of results achieved in the pursuit of gender equality and theempowerment of women. It also establishes the role of UN -Women in system-wide
evaluation and in promoting evaluations responsive to gender equality and women’s
rights in the United Nations system. The policy applies to all initiatives supported
and funds administered by UN-Women. It enters into force on 1 January 2013 andwill be accompanied by systems to support its implementation with a view toeffective compliance. The successful implementation of the policy will require theenhancement of the Entity’s internal capacity in the areas of design, monitoring andevaluation.
2.
UN-Women was created by the General Assembly by its resolution 64/289 “toprovide, through its normative support functions and operational activities, guidance
and technical support to all Member States, across all levels of development and in
all regions, at their request, on gender equality, the empowerment and rights ofwomen and gender mainstreaming”. The role of UN-Women is also one of leading,coordinating and promoting accountability with respect to gender equality andwomen’s empowerment in the United Nations system with a view to more effective
coordination, coherence and gender mainstreaming.
3.
The UN-Women strategic plan, 2011-2013, approved by the Executive Board,commits the Entity to the development of an evaluation policy that will govern its
evaluation function. By doing so, the strategic plan complies with the General
Assembly resolutions on the triennial comprehensive policy reviews of 2004 and2007, which call for the development and the implementation, respectively, of thenorms and standards of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) regarding
evaluation in the United Nations system. The policy is also aligned with theRegulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of
the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation(ST/SGB/2000/8) and with the proposed revision to financial regulations and rules
for UN-Women (UNW/2012/6).
4.
Evaluation in UN-Women acts as a means to implement the gendermainstreaming agenda and the norms and principles outlined in the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Beijin g
Platform for Action, the Millennium Development Goals, Economic and Social
Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 and resolution 2011/5 and the United Nations
System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) policy on gender equality
and women’s empowerment and its corresponding system-wide action plan. Morespecifically, the implementation of the Entity’s evaluation policy will be alignedwith future quadrennial comprehensive policy review resolutions on gender equality
and the empowerment of women, system-wide evaluation and the implementation of
the system-wide action plan’s performance indicator regarding gender-responsive
evaluation.

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Purpose and definition of evaluation in UN-Women
5.
In UN-Women, evaluation is conducted for three main and equally important
purposes that together support the overall delivery of results. First, it is a means todemonstrate accountability to stakeholders, including women who are rights holders
and duty bearers, in managing for results (e.g., in the context of governing bodies,
donor and partner Governments, sister United Nations agencies and UN -Women
beneficiaries around the world). Secondly, it provides credible and reliable evidence
for decision-making in relation to gender equality and the empowerment of womenin order to improve results. Thirdly, it contributes important lessons learned aboutnormative, operational and coordination work in the areas of gender equality and theempowerment of women to the existing knowledge base, including knowledge about
how to achieve greater coherence between normative and operational work in thoseareas.
6.
UN-Women subscribes to the UNEG definition of evaluation, 1 but directly
incorporates principles of gender equality, women’s rights and the empowerment of
women. 2 Evaluation in the Entity is defined as a systematic and impartial
assessment that provides credible and reliable evidence -based information about theextent to which an intervention 3 has resulted in progress (or the lack thereof)
towards intended and/or unintended results regarding gender equality and theempowerment of women. As a process itself, evaluation is also a means to enhance
gender equality and the empowerment of women through the incorporation ofgender and women’s rights dimensions into evaluation approaches, methods,
processes and use. Accordingly, not only does evaluation act as an important driverof positive change towards gender equality and the empowerment of women, but theway in which the evaluation process itself is undertaken empowers the stakeholde rs
involved.
7.
More specifically, evaluations responsive to gender equality and women’s
rights assess whether interventions:(a) Have been guided by the relevant international (national and regional)
normative frameworks for gender equality and women’s rights, United Nations
system-wide mandates and organizational objectives;(b) Have analysed and addressed the structures that contribute to inequalities
experienced by women, men, girls and boys, especially those experiencing multiple
forms of exclusion;__________________
1 The UNEG norms define evaluation as “an assessment, as systematic and impartial as possible,of an activity, project, programme, strategy, policy, topic, theme, sector, operational area,
institutional performance, etc. It focuses on expected and achieved accomplishments, examining
the results chain, processes, contextual factors and causality, in order to understandachievements or the lack thereof. It aims at determining the relevance, impact, effectiveness,
efficiency and sustainability of the interventions and contributions of the organizations of theUnited Nations system. An evaluation should provide evidence-based information that iscredible, reliable and useful, enabling the timely incorporation of findings, recommendations
and lessons into the decision-making processes of the organizations of the United Nations
system and its members”.
2 In accordance with General Assembly resolution 64/289, by which UN-Women was established.
3 “Intervention” is defined in the broad sense: project, programme, strategy, plan, policy, sector,
theme, operational or institutional area, etc.

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UNW/2012/12(c) Have maximized participation and inclusiveness (with respect to rights
holders and duty bearers) in their planning, design, implementation and decision making processes;(d) Sought out opportunities to build sustainable results through theempowerment and capacity-building of women and groups of rights holders andduty bearers;(e) Have contributed to short-, medium- and long-term objectives (or thelack thereof) through the examination of results chains, processes, contextual factors
and causality using gender- and rights-based analysis.
8.
Evaluation is related to, but distinct from, four other oversight andorganizational functions carried out in UN -Women:(a) Audit, which is concerned mainly with assessing the adequacy ofmanagement controls to ensure the economical and efficient use of resources; thesafeguarding of assets; the reliability of financial and other information; compliancewith regulations, rules and established policies; the effectiveness of risk
management; and the adequacy of organizational structures, systems and processes.
Audit is focused mainly on compliance, while evaluation is focused on results andenhancing the understanding of what works, why it works and how. Evaluations canmake use of information about programme efficiency obtained through audits;(b) Monitoring, which is a continuous programmatic management function
aimed at providing regular information about, and early indications of progress (orthe lack thereof) in, the achievement of intended results. It is com monly equatedwith reporting, as it is one of the main means of collecting information. Whilemonitoring is concerned mainly with whether a programme is being carried out
correctly, evaluation is also concerned with whether the right things are being done
under a programme, why and how the intended and unintended results have beenachieved, whether there are better ways of achieving the desired results, andwhether the results achieved are sustainable;(c) Knowledge management, which is the systematic and integrated processof creating, analysing, storing and disseminating knowledge resources. Evaluation
findings and lessons are inputs to organizational learning and therefore feed into
knowledge management systems;(d) Social research, which is the systematic and in-depth analysis of social
phenomena, designed specifically to generate or contribute to empirical knowledge.
While evaluation uses traditional social science methods of data collection andanalysis and can contribute to knowledge, its main purpos e is to support
management by contributing to organizational accountability, decision -making andlearning. Social research is often a key source of information for evaluations.
Guiding evaluation principles and standards
9.
A number of principles guide evaluation planning, conduct and follow-up,
which, when taken together, ensure that all evaluation processes reflect (a) the
overall normative, operational and coordination mandates of UN -Women as anentity within the United Nations system, (b) the commitment of UN-Women toevaluation that is responsive to gender equality and women’s rights, and(c) alignment with the UNEG norms and standards, the UNEG ethical guidelines

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and the handbook Integrating Human Rights and Gender Equality in Evaluation :Towards UNEG Guidance. Evaluation conducted in UN-Women should adhere to
the following principles:(a) National ownership and leadership. Evaluation should be country-driven.
It should be planned and conducted to ensure national ownership and leadership ofevaluation processes by both rights holders and duty bearers. To this end, it should
support the development of capacity to conduct evaluations that are responsive togender equality and women’s rights;(b) United Nations system coordination and coherence with regard to genderequality and the empowerment of women. Evaluations should be conducted systemwide and jointly with United Nations sister agencies, whenever possible, as a means
to promote coordination and coherence regarding gender equality and theempowerment of women. Evaluations should systematically assess how to improvecoordination and coherence in terms of gender equality and the empowerment of
women, particularly with regard to normative and operational work in those areas;(c) Innovation. Evaluations should seek to identify and illuminate
innovations in the work of UN-Women with respect to gender equality and theempowerment of women. They should also apply innovative evaluation approaches
and methods that have potential to more fully capture the complex and long-term
nature of achieving results in those areas;(d) Fair power relations and empowerment. Evaluations should be
conducted with an understanding of contextual power and gender relations. The
process should seek to empower women and disadvantaged groups;(e) Participation and inclusion. Evaluation processes should ensure
stakeholder participation that is both relevant and inclusive, given the evaluation
subject at hand. In particular, stakeholder analysis should be conducted and planne dto take into account the additional time and resources needed to allow for theparticipation of all relevant stakeholder groups, especially women who face barriers
to participation;(f) Independence and impartiality. The evaluation function is to be carriedout independently of other management functions in order to ensure that it iscredible and free from undue influence and that it results in unbiased andtransparent reports. Evaluators should demonstrate impartiality and be free from any
conflict of interest or bias. They should have full access to information regarding
the subjects that they are evaluating and the freedom to express their opinions;(g) Transparency. Evaluations should be conducted in transparent andconsultative manner with key stakeholders. Evaluation plans, terms of reference andreports should be made publicly available in order to enhance the transparency of
UN-Women with regard to efficiency and commitment to managing for results;(h) Quality and credibility. Evaluations should be conducted in a systematicmanner, 4 applying sound approaches and methods to ensure the quality andcredibility of findings, recommendations and lessons generated. Reports should be__________________
4 In accordance with the UNEG norms and standards, the UN-Women evaluation guidelines, theUNEG code of conduct and applicable ethical standards for research.

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complete and balanced. A quality assurance mechanism will support eva luators andevaluation managers in this regard;(i) Intentionality and use of evaluation. Planning for evaluations
demonstrates a clear intent regarding the purpose and use of findings to improve thework of UN-Women or the United Nations system in the areas of gender equality
and the empowerment of women, contributes to knowledge about gender equality
and the empowerment of women, and/or contributes to broader United Nations
system processes. This requires the proper timing of evaluations, as well as
evaluation dissemination plans, management responses and action plans that reflect
original intent;(j) Ethics. Evaluators should have personal and professional integrity andabide by the UNEG ethical guidelines for evaluation and the UNEG code of conduct
for evaluation in the United Nations system, to ensure that the rights of individuals
involved in an evaluation are respected. 5 Evaluators must act with cultural
sensitivity and pay particular attention to protocols, codes and recommendations
that may be relevant to their interactions with women. 6
Coordination by UN-Women of United Nations system-wide evaluation on genderequality and the empowerment of women
10. The creation and the mandate of UN-Women were a direct response by
Member States in furthering the United Nations reform agenda for system-wide
coherence in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The
mandate addresses gaps identified throughout the system regarding gender equality
and the empowerment of women, including inadequate coordination among United
Nations agencies, inadequate coherence between normative and operational work,lack of accountability and lack of authority. The comprehensive review of the
independent system-wide evaluation mechanism 7 also noted the absence of aframework for integrating gender equality into system-wide evaluations and the
expectation that UN-Women will actively promote the integration of gender equality
into system-wide evaluation.
11. Therefore, UN-Women has an essential role in supporting the evaluation ofprogress made in fulfilling the commitments of the United Nations system withregard to gender equality and the empowerment of women, specifically the
implementation of the CEB system-wide policy on gender equality and women’s
empowerment and the related system-wide action plan. 8 It will support compliancewith and reporting on the plan’s performance indicator regarding gender -responsive
evaluation.

__________________
5 See the UNEG ethical guidelines for evaluation and the UNEG code of conduct for evaluation in

the United Nations system.
6 E.g., the World Health Organization publications Putting Women First: Ethical and Safety

Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence against Women, and WHO Ethical and
Safety Recommendations for Interviewing Trafficked Women.
7 See Independent System-Wide Evaluation Mechanisms: Comprehensive Review of the Existing
Institutional Framework for System-Wide Evaluation of Operational Activities for Developmentof the United Nations System Mandated in General Assembly Resolution 64/289 , March 2012.
8 See System-Wide Action Plan for Implementation of the United Nations CEB Policy on Gender
Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).

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12. UN-Women will promote United Nations system coherence, coordination andaccountability in terms of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughsystem-wide evaluation and joint evaluation by:• Actively contributing to UNEG and to regional and country evaluation groups• Promoting joint evaluation initiatives regarding gender equality and systemwide accountability at the global, regional and country levels• Supporting gender-responsive evaluation capacity within the United Nations
system• Building evidence-based knowledge concerning gender equality.
13. More specifically, at the global level, system-wide evaluation will be used toaddress accountability gaps identified with respect to gender equality and theempowerment of women in the United Nations system. In addition, regional andcountry offices will promote coordination in the areas of gender equality and theempowerment of women within the United Nations system through participation in
joint evaluation, United Nations Development Assistance Framework evaluations,“Delivering as one” evaluations and any relevant system-wide evaluation exercise at
the regional or country level.
UN-Women evaluations 9
14. Evaluations assess the operational work of UN-Women conducted at the
global, regional and country levels, the normative support work undertaken by the
Entity, and its coordination role within the United Nations system. All evaluations
should assess the coherence of normative and operational work.
15. UN-Women evaluations provide evidence of the processes employed andresults achieved at the output, outcome and impact levels; illuminate theconnections implicit in the unique role of UN-Women in terms of operational,
normative support and coordination work; and reveal the factors and modalities thatfacilitate or hinder the achievement of results. They deploy innovative app roaches
and mixed methods to highlight the pathways to follow in the often complex,
non-linear and long-term process of achieving gender equality and theempowerment of women at the global, regional and country levels.
16.

UN-Women evaluations fall into two main categories:(a) Corporate evaluations, which are independent assessments undertakenby the independent Evaluation Office with the support of external evaluators. They
are utilized to assess issues of corporate strategic significance concerning
development effectiveness, organizational performance and normative andoperational coherence;(b) Decentralized evaluations, which are conducted by independent external
evaluators but managed by programmatic offices. They are conducted in fullconsultation or in partnership with national stakeholders and United Nations
agencies, to the extent possible. Decentralized evaluations are utilized to assess
issues of significance at the programmatic level and play a crucial role in managing__________________
9 The evaluation types listed here are defined in the annex. They fall under the category ofself-evaluations or internal evaluations as referred to in ST/SGB/2000/8. They are allundertaken by external qualified independent evaluators.

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for results. They are key inputs for corporate evaluations and United Nations
Development Assistance Framework evaluations.
17. UN-Women corporate and decentralized evaluations assess the operational,
normative support and coordination work of the Entity through strategy/policy,organizational, thematic, regional, country and programme evaluation. Joint
evaluation is also promoted.
18. UN-Women corporate and decentralized evaluations are undertaken during
different stages of the programme life cycle and include evaluability ass essment,
midterm evaluation, final evaluation and meta-evaluation.
19. Evaluation criteria are the standard against which evaluation judgements are
made and correspond to the key evaluation questions. UN-Women evaluation
criteria are aligned with those of UNEG, including criteria based on gender equality
and international human rights principles. They include relevance, effectiveness,
efficiency, sustainability, impact, coherence, connectedness, coverage, coordination,
innovation, participation and inclusiveness, social transformation, empowerment
and equality. The Evaluation Office will tailor the definition of each evaluation
criterion to the unique mandate and role of UN -Women and will develop specificguidance on the use of the criteria.
20. The selection of evaluation criteria for both corporate and decentralized
evaluations is dependent on the specifics of each evaluation and will be informed by
the characteristics and context of the intervention in question, as well as the need tofocus on particular areas of inquiry.
Evaluation quality assurance and capacity development
21. The Evaluation Office will develop and maintain evaluation quality assurance
mechanisms in order to continuously improve and enhance the quality andcredibility of the Entity’s corporate and decentralized evaluations and of theevaluation function overall. The system will draw on the UNEG norms andstandards, the UNEG ethical guidelines for evaluation, the UNEG code of conduct
for evaluation in the United Nations system, and UNEG guidance documents.
22.

Key elements of the quality assurance mechanisms include:• Guidance and tools for conducting and managing corporate and decentralized
gender equality and women’s rights responsive evaluation• Quality criteria for assessing all UN-Women evaluation reports• The peer review of corporate and decentralized evaluation reports, processes
and the evaluation function overall• The meta-evaluation of UN-Women evaluations• Evaluation quality assurance panels.

23. In order to incrementally improve the quality of evaluation, UN-Women
evaluation capacities will be strengthened globally and at the regional and country
levels. The Entity will also promote evaluation capacity across United Nationsorganizations.
24. Furthermore, the development of national capacities is a central component of
the work of UN-Women. The Entity will support national capacity development as a12-52732

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key element of all its evaluation processes. Partnerships for evaluation capacity
development initiatives will be promoted to support the capacity of Governments,
national and regional evaluation associations and networks with respect to gender responsive evaluation.
25. An evaluation partnership and capacity development strategy will be
developed at the corporate and regional levels.
Evaluation planning
26. UN-Women systematically plans and budgets for evaluations through abiannual corporate evaluation plan and biannual decentralized integrated
monitoring, evaluation and research plans. 10
27. As outlined in table 1, eight key parameters with two levels of priority are
considered in selecting corporate and decentralized evaluations to ensure evaluation
coverage of the key areas of the work and organizational performance of
UN-Women. Evaluation planning will prioritize strategic-level results and will be
driven by parameters beyond that of significant investment. The Executive Board
may also request an evaluation on the basis of these parameters.
Table 1
Eight parameters for prioritizing evaluationsFirst priority

Second priority

1.

Relevance of the subject. Is the evaluation subject asocioeconomic or political priority of the mandate and role of
UN-Women? Is it a key priority of the strategic plan or the annual
workplan? Is it a geographic priority of UN-Women, e.g., levels ofgender inequality and the situation of women in the country?

2.

Risk associated with the intervention. Are there political,
economic, funding, structural or organizational factors that present
potential high risk for the non-achievement of results or for whichfurther evidence is needed for management decision-making?

3.

Significant investment. Is the intervention considered a significant
investment in relation to the overall office portfolio ( more than one
third)?

4.

Demands for accountability from stakeholders. Are stakeholders
specifically requesting the evaluation (e.g., through donor
requirements in direct financing and co-financing arrangements)?
Can the demand be satisfied through an evaluation that is alreadyplanned?

5.

Potential for replication and scaling-up. Would an evaluation
provide the information necessary to identify the factors required
for the success of an intervention and determine the feasibility of its
replication or scaling-up? Is the intervention a pilot or/and an
innovative initiative?

__________________
10 See UN-Women strategic plan.

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Cross-cutting(to be assessed in allprioritized evaluations)

6.

Potential for joint or United Nations Development Assistance
Framework evaluation. Does the evaluation present a clear
opportunity to evaluate jointly with other partners ( United Nations
country teams, national Governments, etc.) or fold into a United
Nations Development Assistance Framework evaluation to avoid
duplication and promote coordination?

7.

Feasibility for implementing evaluation. Does the commissioning
office have the financial and human resources available to conduct
or manage a high-quality evaluation within the time period
indicated? Is the evaluability of the intervention high enough to
conduct an in-depth study that can result in sound findings,
recommendations and lessons?

8.

Knowledge gap. Will the evaluation help to fill a pressing
knowledge gap in relation to achieving gender equality or theempowerment of women?

28. Corporate and decentralized evaluation planning in UN-Women is guided by
the requirements outlined in table 2.
Table 2
UN-Women evaluation requirements

Corporate

Corporate ordecentralized

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Type of evaluation

TargetResponsible office

Strategy/policy evaluation

At least one evaluation per
strategic plan life cycle,
additionally as mandated
and resourced

Evaluation Office

Organizational
performance evaluation

At least one evaluation
during the strategic plan life
cycle aEvaluation Office

Normative support
evaluation

At least one evaluation
during the strategic plan life
cycle

Evaluation Office

Thematic evaluation

At least one evaluation
focused on each thematicarea of the strategic plan
during its life cycle b

Evaluation Office

Regional cluster/thematic
evaluation

At least one cluster/thematic
evaluation in each of thefive regions during thestrategic plan life cycle

Regional office or
Evaluation Office11

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DecentralizedType of evaluation

TargetResponsible officeCountry-level evaluation c

At least one country-levelevaluation per country
programme/plan life cycle;
evaluation should becoordinated to align with or
be integrated into United
Nations Development
Assistance Framework
evaluation where feasible d

Evaluation Office orregional office

Programme evaluation

To ensure sufficientevaluation coverage of theoffice portfolio,e withpriority given to significant
investment, it isrecommended that:

Country office,regional office,Headquarters
division• Programmes equal to or
exceeding one third of
the overall office
portfolio be evaluatedWhen there is no
programme that equals or
exceeds one third of theoverall office portfolio, it isrecommended that:• A number of programmesthat together equal atleast one third of theoverall office portfolio
be evaluated (on aclustered or individual
basis)
Evaluation is also
recommended:• When a commitment has
been made to key
stakeholders (donors,
Member States,
beneficiaries, etc.)• For all strategic pilot
initiatives that aredesigned for replicationand scaling-up

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Type of evaluation

TargetResponsible office

Alignment with countrylevel evaluations:• Final and midterm
programme evaluations
will be planned so that
their findings will beavailable and relevant
for feeding into countrylevel evaluation,
including United Nations
Development Assistance
Framework evaluationaGiven the short time period covered by the first UN-Women strategic plan, evaluations of organizational
performance and normative support will need to be prioritized according to the planning parameters(para. 27).
b
During the first (2012-2013) cycle of the UN-Women strategic plan, evaluations of all thematic areas may not
be possible, owing to lack of time available to compile aggregated results.
cCountry-level includes multi-country offices, which will eventually phase to country offices.
d
A limited number of evaluability assessments and/or evaluations of strategic notes/annual workplans will be
conducted by the Evaluation Office and/or regional offices during 2013, beginning with those countries thathave full delegation of authority.
e
The office investment portfolio is defined as the total amount of both core and non-core resources.

29. UN-Women evaluation plans should move beyond the above evaluation
requirements where there is both a demonstrated need and capacity available toevaluate.
30. Resource allocation for meeting these evaluation requirements will be
integrated into the overall planning and budgeting process. The recommended
minimum level of investment in evaluation is 3 per cent of the total plan/programmebudget. An additional 3 to 10 per cent of the overall programme budget should beallocated for monitoring, which reflects the importance of monitoring not only for
programme management, but also for effective evaluation.
Management of evaluation
31. The management of UN-Women evaluations is carried out in accordance withthe established quality assurance standards and systems issued by the Evaluation
Office so as to ensure independent, high-quality and credible evaluation findings,
recommendations and lessons learned. The conduct and management of corporate
and decentralized evaluations must abide by these standards and systems and are
subject to quality review.
32.

Evaluation management protocols include:• The conduct of evaluability assessments, including with respect to the genderequality and women’s rights elements of the intervention• The analysis of stakeholders, including various groups of women and men whoare both rights holders and duty bearers

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UNW/2012/12• The development of terms of reference in a participatory manner• The transparent and competitive recruitment of evaluators/ evaluation teams
with adequate experience in the areas of gender equality and women’s rights• Ensuring overall stakeholder participation in the process, including thecomposition and management of evaluation reference groups that include
women who are both rights holders and duty bearers• Quality assurance processes established for interim and final evaluation
products• The development and resourcing of dissemination plans that seek to ensurethat information reaches a wide range of stakeholders• Support for the development of management response and action plans in
consultation with stakeholders.
33. The UN-Women publication A Manager’s Guide to Gender Equality and
Human Rights Responsive Evaluation provides the tools necessary for the
management of all phases of the evaluation process: preparation, conduct andfollow-up/use. The UNEG handbook Integrating Human Rights and Gender
Equality in Evaluation: Towards UNEG Guidance is also a key reference for all
UN-Women evaluations.
Use of evaluation for improved performance in the areas of gender equality andthe empowerment of women
34. Evaluation findings, recommendations and lessons learned are used to improveorganizational and United Nations system-wide performance in the areas of genderequality and the empowerment of women, and improve coherence between thenormative and the operational work carried out in those areas. More specifically,evaluation provides key inputs for:(a) The refinement of norms on gender equality and the empowerment of
women by intergovernmental bodies such as the Commission on the Status of
Women;(b) The provision of support for the UN-Women Executive Board’s oversightand approval role;(c)

The planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of:(i)

UN-Women plans, policies, strategies and programmes/projects;(ii) United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks and “Delivering asone” country programmes;(iii) United Nations system-wide policies, action plans and programmes;(iv) International, regional and national plans, policies and goals;(v) The strengthening of system-wide coordination mechanisms for genderequality;(vi) System-wide evaluation processes;(vii) The development of gender-responsive evaluation approaches andmethodologies;

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UNW/2012/12(viii) Knowledge management and research initiatives.
35. The use of evaluation is facilitated through the mandatory development ofmanagement responses and action plans for all independent evaluations within six
weeks of the finalization of evaluation reports. For joint evaluations, management
responses and action plans are to be developed jointly. 11
36. This policy will be complemented by a system aimed at global accountability
and the tracking of evaluation use (GATE system), which will be used by the
independent Evaluation Office to monitor and report on the status of management
responses and action plans to the Executive Director and the Executive Board on anannual basis.
37. The use of evaluation is the responsibility of all managers and staff. It is
promoted within UN-Women through a system of organizational incentives,
inclusion in the performance appraisal system and investment in evaluation capacity
development. The Executive Board is also responsible for considering and using
evaluation results in its work.
38. In the broader United Nations system and the international community, the useof available evaluation information concerning gender equality and theempowerment of women is promoted through the creation and maintenance ofknowledge platforms regarding evaluations on gender equality.
Disclosure and dissemination
39. UN-Women demonstrates its commitment to public accountability and thesharing of knowledge by disclosing all evaluation plans, independent evaluation
terms of reference, final reports and management responses/action plans through thecentralized, web-based and publicly accessible UN-Women Evaluation Resource
Centre.
40. Corporate evaluation plans and the evaluation sections of decentralized
monitoring, evaluation and research plans are posted within one month of theirapproval. Evaluation terms of reference, reports, management responses and actionplans are posted within six weeks of their finalization; final evaluation reports are to
be disclosed concurrently with the corresponding management responses and actionplans. Evaluation dissemination products are posted upon their finalization.
41. UN-Women understands that disclosure through the Evaluation Resource
Centre system in and of itself is not sufficient to promote the use of eva luative
information, nor is it adequate to ensure accessibility to a wide range ofstakeholders. Therefore, dissemination strategies are developed and resourced for all
independent evaluations. They are geared towards enhancing use and promoting
evaluation through:• The development of tailored knowledge products• Efforts to address barriers to access for key identified rights holders and duty
bearers, particularly women• The use of innovative dissemination methods__________________
11 UN-Women should issue a unilateral response in cases in which a joint management response/

action plan is not feasible.

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UNW/2012/12• The development of methodological notes on the conduct of evaluations
responsive to gender equality and women’s rights.
Roles and responsibilities in evaluation
42. It is the responsibility of all UN-Women staff to adhere to the principles of thispolicy and promote a culture of evaluation responsive to gender equality andwomen’s rights in the context of their respective roles, both within the Entity and in
the wider United Nations system.
43. As a recently created element within the United Nations system, the process
for establishing the regional architecture of UN-Women is unfolding in a phased
approach during the 2011-2013 strategic plan period. Specific roles andaccountabilities assigned for corporate and decentralized evaluations are reflectiveof this process.
44. The Executive Board will approve the evaluation policy and will be informedof corporate evaluation plans, corporate evaluations and the corresponding
management responses. It will be made aware of the status and the implementationof both corporate and decentralized evaluation plans and management responses andaction plans through the annual evaluation report, which is prepared by the
independent Evaluation Office. The Executive Board may also request areas forcorporate evaluation based on the eight parameters defined in the policy, including
joint evaluations with other United Nations agencies. More specifically, it will:• Review and discuss the corporate evaluation plan
• Discuss key results of corporate evaluations and consider their implications forthe strategic management of UN-Women• Be informed of evaluation findings and recommendations when exercising its
oversight and approval functions with respect to UN-Women policies andstrategies• Establish ad hoc working groups to discuss evaluation results.
In addition, individual Executive Board members may participate in referencegroups for selected corporate evaluations.
45. The Commission on the Status of Women and other intergovernmental bodies
can consider findings, recommendations and lessons learned from UN-Women
evaluations in the promulgation of policies.
46. The Executive Director is accountable for UN -Women results and is the main
champion of evaluation within the Entity. She or he will provide the political will
and enabling environment for enhancing the evaluation culture. She or he is
responsible for safeguarding the independence of the Evaluation Office byappointing a competent Head/Director of Evaluation and ensuring that the Office isadequately staffed and resourced to fulfil its role in UN -Women evaluation andcoordination of system-wide evaluations with regard to gender equality and theempowerment of women. She or he approves the corporate evaluation plan and is
responsible for ensuring the development and implementation of management
responses and action plans corresponding to corporate evaluations and forpresenting these to the Executive Board. Through the Deputy Executive Directors,
she or he is ultimately accountable for the implementation of all decentralized

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monitoring, evaluation and research plans and the utilization of evaluation findings,
recommendations and lessons through management responses and action plans. In
addition, she or he chairs the Evaluation Committee.
47. The Evaluation Office is the custodian of the UN-Women evaluation function.
It reports directly to the Executive Director to safeguard its independence frommanagement, thus enabling it to conduct its work with impartiality. Its main
responsibilities are to:(a)

Establish effective corporate evaluation systems:(i) Develop an evaluation policy and strategy and the Evaluation Officeannual workplan;(ii) Develop a corporate evaluation plan and conduct independent corporate
evaluations. While maintaining its independent decision-making process, theOffice, in developing the corporate evaluation plan, will take into
consideration the interests of various stakeholders (e.g., the Executive Board,
programme countries and UN-Women offices);(iii) Develop an annual evaluation report to the Executive Board;(iv) Present strategic evaluation results to the Executive Board;(v)

Alert senior management about issues arising from evaluation;(vi) Develop evaluation systems, including for quality assurance, planning,
disclosure, management responses and action plans and knowled ge
management;(vii) Promote the use of evaluation through the development of evaluativeknowledge products;(b)Strengthen decentralized evaluation systems:(i) Develop guidance on evaluation that is responsive to gender equality andwomen’s rights, including on evaluation criteria;(ii) Strengthen decentralized evaluation systems, conduct regional strategic
evaluations and provide direct support for decentralized evaluation planning,
conduct, follow-up and use;(iii) Provide technical advice regarding programme evaluability;(iv) Develop and maintain a roster of evaluation expertise in the area ofgender equality;(c)

Lead United Nations coordination on gender-responsive evaluation:(i) Support implementation and reporting with respect to the syste m-wide
action plan evaluation indicator through the development of guidance andtechnical support;(ii)

Lead and participate in UNEG;(iii) Promote and lead joint evaluations and system-wide evaluations withrespect to gender equality;(d) Promote innovation and knowledge generation concerning what works inpromoting gender equality, through national evaluation capacity-building:12-52732

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UNW/2012/12(i) Build UN-Women, United Nations system and national evaluation
capacity to carry out evaluations responsive to gender equa lity and women’s
rights, by supporting evaluation associations and national monitoring andevaluation systems;(ii) Build and maintain a repository of evaluations concerning genderequality.
48. A competent Head/Director is appointed to lead the Evaluatio n Office, with theauthority to report directly to the Executive Director and to present the annual
evaluation report to the Executive Board. She or he is ultimately responsible for
ensuring that the Office meets high professional standards in the implemen tation of
its workplan and the corporate evaluation plan. She or he is also responsible formanaging the budget of the Office and for the appointment of its staff. She or hemust meet UNEG core competencies for evaluators and abide by UNEG norms andstandards, the UNEG ethical guidelines for evaluation and the UNEG code of
conduct for evaluation in the United Nations system.
49. The Head/Director of the Evaluation Office is supported in the implementationof the Office workplan by evaluation specialists, evaluation analysts, regional
evaluation specialists and evaluation associates who report directly to her or him,
meet UNEG core competencies for evaluators and abide by the UNEG norms andstandards and the UNEG ethical guidelines and code of conduct.
50. In particular, the Regional Evaluation Specialists, located in regional offices,
will conduct and manage strategic decentralized evaluations at the regional andcountry levels, enhancing the independence of the processes. They will also allow
for a more symbiotic exchange between corporate and decentralized evaluation
systems by supporting the implementation of the evaluation policies and strategies
in their respective regions through the formulation of regional strategies. In
addition, they will support the capacity development of UN-Women staff with aview to managing decentralized evaluations, United Nations Development
Assistance Framework evaluations and other joint evaluation processes from agender perspective.
51. The Evaluation Committee is composed of members of the senior management
team, Regional Directors and external senior evaluation experts from sister United
Nations agencies. The Committee acts as an advisory forum for the Executive
Director and the Evaluation Office in order to further ensu re the independence andquality of the evaluation function and promote the use of all UN -Women
evaluations. The Evaluation Committee meets biannually to review the corporate
evaluation plan, corporate evaluation reports and the corresponding management
responses and action plans, and the annual evaluation report to the Executive Board,and to consider any other significant evaluation-related issue. It also provides
oversight of the planning and implementation of decentralized evaluations.
52. Senior management staff (Deputy Executive Directors, Division Directors,
Regional Directors and country representatives) champion the use of all evaluations
within UN-Women and ensure that adequate financial and human capacity is madeavailable for decentralized evaluation so as to ensure a fully effective and efficientevaluation function. They are responsible for creating an enabling environment forthe strengthening of the evaluation culture in the area under their purview. They put
in place the factors and resources necessary to ensure the evaluability of

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interventions, including quality design and monitoring, reporting and documentation
systems. They are ultimately responsible for the use of findings, recommendations
and lessons learned resulting from the evaluations commissioned by their respective
offices and from other corporate or relevant evaluations. The use of evaluation forimproved performance will be included as a key element in the performanceappraisals of senior managers. More specifically:• Senior management will assign monitoring and evaluation focal points andevaluation task managers in advance of the preparation stage for all
decentralized evaluations• Senior management is responsible for the development, implementation andmonitoring of management responses and action plans corresponding to thedecentralized evaluations commissioned by their offices, and for reporting on
their status through the GATE system• Regional Directors play an oversight role with respect to decentralized
evaluations in their region, and are responsible for ensuring adequate staffing
and competencies for the fulfilment of evaluation roles, including the
mandatory recruitment of monitoring and evaluation specialists or appointmentof monitoring and evaluation focal points• The Programme Division will approve decentralized monitoring, evaluation
and research plans and support decentralized evaluations by guaranteeing theevaluability of programmes through the allocation of appropriate resources,
technical support and guidance on the development of theories of change,
performance monitoring frameworks and their implementation, and the setting up of programme documentation systems.
53. In order to implement evaluation plans and manage evaluations, Monitoringand Evaluation Specialists/Focal Points coordinate, support and communicate
information about all evaluation-related work of the programmatic office in order topromote compliance with the evaluation policy. In addition, Evaluation Task
Managers are responsible for supporting the overall management of individual
evaluation processes, including ensuring overall stakeholder participation.
54. The Human Resources Section and the Procurement Section will ensure that
all individual or institutional contracts with external ev aluators will include signed
copies of the UNEG code of conduct for evaluation in the United Nations system.
55. The roles and responsibilities outlined above will be reinforced through asystem of incentives and inclusion in individual and office workpla ns and formallythrough the performance appraisal system.
External evaluation
56. An external review of the implementation of the evaluation policy will be
conducted in 2015. A peer review of the evaluation function will be conducted in2014 to inform the review of the policy.
57. The external independent evaluation of UN-Women can be conducted by the
Office of Internal Oversight Services and the Joint Inspection Unit, given theirrespective mandates.

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Annex
Types of evaluation conducted in the United Nations Entity
for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Womena
Two main types of evaluation are conducted in the United Nations Entity for
Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women):• Corporate evaluations, which are independent assessments undertaken by the
independent Evaluation Office with the support of external evaluators. They
are utilized to assess issues of corporate strategic significance with regard to
the effectiveness of development, organizational performance and normativeand operational coherence;• Decentralized evaluations, which are conducted by independent external
evaluators but managed by programmatic offices. They are conducted in fullconsultation or in partnership with national stakeholders and United Nations
agencies, to the extent possible. They are utilized to assess issues ofsignificance at the programmatic level and play a crucial role in managing forresults. They are key inputs for corporate evaluations and United Nations
Development Assistance Framework evaluations.
Evaluation is undertaken at the following levels:• Strategy/policy evaluation is an assessment of the implementation of and/or
compliance with a strategy or policy. It analyses the design, coherence andlong-term impact of a set of programmes within a particular framework;• Normative support evaluation is an assessment of the work carried out by
UN-Women to support the development of norms and standards inconventions, declarations, resolutions, regulatory frameworks, agreements,
guidelines, codes of practice and other standard-setting instruments, at the
global, regional and national levels. The Entity’s normative work also includes
support for the implementation of these instruments at the policy level,
namely, their integration into legislation, policies and development plans, andfor their implementation at the programme level;• Evaluation of organizational performance is an evaluation of an organization’s
capacity to efficiently manage its assets for the achievements of results an d its
capacity for innovation and change. It involves examining its decision -making
processes and organizational structures and institutional capacities;• Thematic evaluation is an assessment of a thematic area of work. It analyses
multiple programmes addressing a theme with a view to understanding the
combined results in an area and better understanding the opportunities,
challenges and gaps in programming and results. It can be conducted at the
global, regional or country level;• Regional/cluster evaluation is an assessment of the work of the Entity at theregional level. It involves assessing the contributions made by UN -Women to
results in a specific region by either analysing multiple programmes across a__________________
a There are additional types of evaluations that UN-Women can undertake. These will be fully

explained and listed in guidance developed by the Entity’s Evaluation Office.

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region on a specific theme or focusing on other programming elements, suchas capacity development, innovation, partnership strategies and regional -level
results;• Country evaluation is a systematic assessment of the contributions made by
UN-Women to development results with respect to gender equality at thecountry level. It focuses on a set of interventions and their overall success inadvancing gender equality in the country;• Programme evaluation is an assessment of an individual UN-Women
programme and its outcomes.
The evaluation of an intervention at any level can be undertaken at different
points in time:• Evaluability assessment is a systematic process that helps to identify whether
an intervention is in a condition to be evaluated and whether an evaluation isjustified, feasible and likely to provide useful information. Its purpose is not
only to determine whether or not the evaluation is to be undertaken, but also to
prepare the programme to generate all the conditions necessary for an
evaluation.
• Midterm evaluation is conducted at the midpoint of an intervention’s life
cycle. It is primarily formative, with a focus on process. It can also provide an
early indication of the achievement of output-level results. It is useful as amore in-depth and credible study than a midterm review to make adjustments
to an intervention.
• Final evaluation is conducted at the end of an intervention’s life cycle. It is
usually summative in nature, focusing on the assessment of outcome -level
results, but final evaluations also capture lessons learned from theimplementation of the intervention.
• Meta-evaluation is the evaluation of an evaluation. It is an assessment by anevaluator of one or more completed evaluation reports that have been preparedby other evaluators. It is used mainly to assess the overall quality ofevaluations against certain established standards or criteria. It can be combinedwith meta-analysis, which synthesizes information from a number of
evaluations to identify discernible patterns and trends.
UN-Women also promotes and leads joint evaluations concerning genderequality and women’s empowerment:• Joint evaluation is defined as an evaluation that is co-commissioned andmanaged by UN-Women and at least one other organization, with eachorganization having decision-making power with respect to the evaluation
process. Joint evaluations are often conducted for joint programmes. Key
examples of joint evaluations include United Nations Development Assistance
Framework evaluations and “Delivering as one” evaluations.

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