Evaluations of PoW and MTS Design and implementation
The MTS can be evaluated at three stages during its four-year cycle: formative stage, mid-term and end of cycle. A formative evaluation informs planning processes and enhances the quality of MTS-related planning documents, a mid-term evaluation can provide operational feedback during implementation whilst a final evaluation assesses results against expected achievements.
Biennial Evaluation Synthesis Report
At the end of each biennium the Evaluation Office prepares a Biennial Evaluation Synthesis Report. This report summarizes the performance of the organization through trends and patterns observed during the biennium from completed evaluations at all levels.
Sub-Programme Evaluations
The Evaluation Office evaluates sub-programmes at least once over the period of two MTS cycles (i.e. eight years). A sub-programme evaluation examines the relevance, achievement of results, effectiveness, sustainability, and efficiency of delivery. These evaluations make use of relevant strategic, portfolio, programme and project level evaluations to help assess overall performance and results of the sub-programme.
Thematic Evaluations
Thematic evaluations are carried out on cross-cutting issues to support the strategic development of the organization as a whole and to enhance synergies across divisions and offices; strengthen UNEP’s comparative advantage and to ensure that it remains at the forefront of environmental and development issues.
Impact and influence evaluations
Impact evaluations attempt to establish the amount of change that is attributable to the intervention. The focus is on evaluating progress towards high-level goals and providing estimates of development impact. They are particularly useful in assessing the overall performance of a project / programme in achieving long-term improvement in the quality of the environment and human living conditions, and the sustainability of the impact against stated objectives.
Project, programmatic and portfolio evaluations
Project Level Evaluations
Terminal Evaluations of projects are undertaken at their completion by independent evaluators that are contracted by the Evaluation Office. Project-level evaluations focus on the ‘theory of change’ or ‘impact pathways’ used by the project to assess project relevance and performance, determine outcomes / results stemming from the project / activity cluster, provide judgments on actual and potential results, their sustainability and the operational efficiency of implementation and factors that affected performance. The Evaluation Office applies quality control processes to ensure that evaluation report quality meets international best practice.
Mid-Term Evaluations are undertaken approximately half-way through project implementation to analyse whether a project is on track, what problems and challenges the project is encountering and which corrective actions are required. Mid-term project evaluations may be conducted by the Evaluation Office, or as a management-led mid-term review.
Validation of management-led Terminal Reviews
The Evaluation Office undertakes a validation exercise for all final performance assessments of projects and programmes conducted through management-led reviews. The Evaluation Office assess the quality of review reports and appropriate performance ratings in-line with the standards of evidence for performance ratings.
Portfolio and Programmatic Evaluations
Portfolio / programme evaluations may offer additional learning opportunities from the differing operational contexts or intervention strategies that often occur across projects. In addition to assessing and rating performance of the individual projects in the portfolio / programme, the evaluation will also assess whether opportunities for collaboration, complementarity and synergy have been fully exploited and duplication has been avoided between the projects.
Joint evaluations with other UN agencies, donors and partners
Where UNEP is involved in the joint implementation of a project or programme, a joint evaluation may be undertaken in collaboration with the evaluation function of the agency, donor or partner. When UNEP does not play a lead role in a joint evaluation, the Evaluation Office will ensure UNEP’s minimum evaluation requirements and quality standards are met.
