In 2020, 11 UNFPA country programme evaluations have been assessed as ‘very good’, among 19 country programme evaluations that were externally quality assessed. This includes country programme evaluations from Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, El Salvador, Indonesia, North Macedonia, Tajikistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Zambia.

The top-rated country programme evaluations demonstrate strong methodological choices, application of a theory-based approach, robustness of analysis, strong participatory consultative processes, integration of ethical standards, and gender responsive and human rights focused methods and tools.

UNFPA evaluations continue to demonstrate an overall improvement in quality. In 2020, 62 per cent of evaluations at UNFPA received a rating of ‘very good’, achieving commendable gain from its level of six per cent in 2014. These high quality evaluations provide credible evidence and lessons to inform the design of the new Country Programme Documents as well as the forthcoming Strategic Plan 2022-2025, particularly as the Fund intensifies its efforts to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and reach the furthest behind first.

To ensure high quality evaluative evidence, UNFPA utilizes an Evaluation Quality Assurance and Assessment (EQAA) system. Quality assurance takes place during the evaluation process. Quality assessment takes place after an evaluation is completed, whereby the final evaluation report is quality assessed against specific criteria by an external independent assessor. At the end of 2020, disability inclusion dimensions were integrated in the evaluation quality assessment criteria to ensure no one is left behind.

To continue to ensure rigor, quality and relevance of UNFPA evaluations during the pandemic, the Evaluation Office developed the guiding principles for adapting evaluations during COVID-19. Additional guidance in this area will be available shortly.

The updated EQAA system, the guidance on adapting evaluations during COVID-19, and the 11 evaluation reports and their quality assessments provide a roadmap to forthcoming 34 UNFPA country programme evaluations in 2021-2022 to ensure high quality evaluative evidence.

All UNFPA country programme evaluations and their corresponding evaluation quality assessments are available on the Evaluation Database.