The United Nations Sustainable Development Group System-Wide Evaluation Office (SWEO), in collaboration with the Independent Evaluation Offices of IFAD, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNDP, UNICEF and WFP has produced evaluation evidence summaries and maps to inform the upcoming 2024 Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR). This review, conducted every four years, allows Member States to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of United Nations development activities.
In 2024, the SWEO launched a cross-system initiative to gather and analyze evidence from nearly 1000 United Nations evaluations conducted between 2021 and 2024. This has resulted in interactive digital maps and five evidence summaries linking to the priorities of 2020 QCPR, such as building a whole of system response to complex settings; the independent resident coordinator system; United Nations development system reform at the regional level; quality funding; and sustainable food systems.
The summaries offer evidence and lessons learned for Member States involved in the 2024 QCPR negotiations. The initiative also aims to optimize the use of evaluation evidence in the United Nations and identify evidence gaps.
The UNFPA Independent Evaluation Office actively supported and contributed to this initiative alongside the evaluation offices of UNDP and the World Food Programme, participating in the management group and peer review teams. UNFPA evaluations analyzed include the formative evaluation of the organizational resilience of UNFPA in light of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic (2024), the formative evaluation of the UNFPA engagement in the reform of the United Nations development system (2023), and the joint evaluation of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation: Accelerating Change, Phase II (2021).
These evidence summaries, along with accompanying briefs and evidence gap maps, are essential resources for stakeholders striving to strengthen United Nations development work and advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Evaluation map by:
Coverage of 2020 QCPR priorities (detailed evidence map)
Coverage of SDGs
Coverage of country/territory and region (forthcoming)