Evaluation

UNIFEM has defined evaluation as a cornerstone in the development of the organization’s capacity to assess its work and enhance its effectiveness. Evaluations serve to document catalytic and scalable initiatives, to integrate and disseminate lessons learned, and to improve the ability to respond effectively to the needs of the regions, countries and people who are stakeholders in the organization’s work. To this end, UNIFEM has established an Evaluation Unit that oversees the evaluation function across the organization.

As a member of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG), UNIFEM follows its norms and standards. UNIFEM evaluations are gender equality and rights responsive. This implies that they assess the impact of interventions on gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights.

The role of the Evaluation Unit is to implement independent and strategic evaluations of corporate significance. This is achieved through the provision of support and technical assistance to UNIFEM headquarters, field office staff and external partners for planning and managing evaluations from a gender equality and human rights perspective.

Annually, UNIFEM carries out a certain number of evaluations in the thematic areas outlined in its Strategic Plan and produces reports with their findings. The Evaluation Unit also develops guidelines and methodologies to mainstream gender equality and human rights perspectives and approaches in the evaluation practice.