UNEG Decentralized Evaluation Interest Group AGM Alexandra Chambel and Julie Thoulouzan co-conveners Nairobi May 2019

Definition: decentralized evaluation “evaluations commissioned and managed by other business units other than the Evaluation Office…” “evaluations conducted by independent internal or external evaluators but managed by programmatic offices not by the central evaluation office”. “…a function undertaken outside of the central evaluation function…” 2

Key features of the interest group: AGM 2015: decision to create an interest group on decentralized evaluation function UN agencies are facing some challenges in delivering decentralized evaluations; understand and address those challenges & opportunities collaboratively within UNEG. Modus operandi for the group: forum among practitioners to discuss and share different practices regarding decentralized evaluation function; establishing an information and knowledge space (rather than developing products and guidance) Membership: ILO, IOM, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNWOMEN, UNV, FAO; WFP, UNFPA (co-conveners) Regional colleagues from several agencies (UNFPA, UN WOMEN, WFP) 3

Interest Group Deliverables: Safe space for practitioners from agencies to share information, good practices and lessons learned on decentralized evaluation 3 webinars delivered on the following priority themes: Staff evaluation capacity building (December 2018) Key lessons on the management of Joint Decentralized Evaluations (February 2019) Ensuring complementarity between decentralized and centralized evaluation plans (April 2019) Document repository - management of the google drive; store and update relevant information (DEIG minutes; recordings; presentations, etc.) 4

Key insights from the webinar: Staff evaluation capacity building (I) ILO, UNFPA and WFP provided indepth insights on their current learning programmes. Commonalities included: The inclination towards cost-efficient e-learning as a core building block of training; blended with other approaches; Tendency to develop evaluation training for more than one audience, including for national counterpart staff; Wide acknowledgement on the importance of peer- learning, with experiences of exchanges among peers to allow for ‘learning on the job’ Capacity development goes hand in hand with professional recognition systems. ILO is spearheading efforts to that regard. … 5

Key insights from the webinar: Joint Decentralized Evaluations (II) Overall: experiences demonstrate that benefits of JE outweigh associated challenges by far (credibility, visibility, paving ground for future collaboration); Budget management: important to ensure each entity pays a share (ownership); with inclusion of contingency funds being essential; Containing timelines: early start, efficient communication/review, secondments to governments and involvement academia/think tank; Early planning on governance mechanisms; # eval. managers; guidance/templates and pertaining quality assurance mechanisms is key; 2- Containing timelines: early start, efficient communication/review, secondments to governments FOR THOSE JEs DONE IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GOVERNMENT –SO THAT ONE CAN ENSURE TURN AROUND ON REVIEWS ARE QUICK and involvement academia/think tank SO THAT THOSE CAN EFFICIENTLY SUPPORT DATA COLLECTIPN AND ANALYSIS 3 - Early planning on governance mechanisms EVALUATIONS STEERING GROUP; EVALUATION MANAGERS AND EVALUATION REFERENCE GROUP; # eval. Managers 2 OR 3 PROVEN TO BE IDEAL; guidance/templates and pertaining QA is key IT OFTEN DOES NOT WORK TO GO FOR GUIDANCE OF ONE, AND QA OF THE OTHER AGENCY AS QA IS BUILT AROUND THE GUODANCE ; 6

Cont. Without joint accountability no joint evaluation. Follow-up actions to be identified for each commissioning entity; Opportunity to capitalize on strengths of each partner; JEs with governments leverage an enormous yet not well conceived strategic opportunity for NECD; governments can shadow and already have learnt a lot in particular on governance mechanisms, guidance and quality assurance Without joint accountability no JE. Follow-up actions to be identified for each commissioning entity; WHEREAS RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE ALL ENCOMPASSING Opportunity to capitalize on strengths of each partner; E.G ACCESS RADIO OF GOVERNMENT, REMOTE DATA COLLECTION WFP, SWIFTER ADMIN APPROVAL PROCESS OF AGENCY Y 7

Key insights from the webinar: Ensuring complementarity bet dec & cent Key insights from the webinar: Ensuring complementarity bet dec & cent. evaluation plans (III) Some progress made on creating tools and systems for evaluation planning, e.g. : UNFPA costed evaluation plans and the quadrennial budgeted evaluation plan for DE; Embedding of evaluation plans and budgets in WFP Country Strategic Plans; regular updates of WFP Regional Evaluation Plans) Positive outcomes, e.g: managing potential overlaps; led to increased resources allocated to decentralized evaluations; rationalization of evaluation planning aligned with the Evaluation Policy criteria and clear intended purpose; annual reporting against the Quadrennial budgeted evaluation plan. 8

(cont.) Challenges on keeping the information updated on the DE, for example: potential cancelations; issues of funding, etc.; coordinating with other exercises (case studies, audits, reviews, …); managing evaluation fatigue 9

Way forward Continue the “’safe space for knowledge sharing among practitioners Continue including colleagues from regional and country offices in the discussions and sharing Areas for future/ continued work: Organize subsequent webinars on topics including: Securing and tracking staffing and financial resources for decentralized evaluations; Safeguarding the impartiality of Decentralized Evaluations and addressing potential breaches; Quality Support mechanisms for Decentralized Evaluations: Internal vs Outsourced approaches. Explore feasibility of sharing and consolidating Agencies’ respective decentralized evaluation plans with the view to identify potential opportunities for joint evaluations. Invite Regional Evaluation Networks to present their joint initiatives 10

Thank you 10 Agencies 11