2. Management structure & roles
3. Stakeholder analysis & Reference Group
4. Terms of Reference
5. Select Evaluation Team
Evaluation requires careful planning and preparation to ensure it will be of high quality, credible and useful once completed. The manager has an important influence at this stage in ensuring that: the evaluation questions are framed to address GE / HR dimensions; the process is participatory, engages the appropriate stakeholders and is sensitive to fair power relationships; and mixed methods will be used that can adequately assess the GE / HR dimensions. This chapter provides information and tools for the preparation phase of the evaluation process. It is organised into sections on:
- checking evaluability
- defining the management structure and roles for the evaluation
- stakeholder identification and participation
- developing an Evaluation Terms of Reference and
- selecting the Evaluation Team
Moving through these steps will provide a strong foundation for the next phase – conduct of the evaluation, and help to ensure the evaluation is well defined and feasible within the resources and time available.
UN interventions will generally fall into two categories: where human rights and/or gender equality are the primary focus of the intervention, and where human rights and gender equality are mainstreamed or crosscutting.
All evaluations in both categories should include an assessment of the human rights and gender equality dimensions. For interventions in the first category, GE and / or HR will be a primary focus. (GE interventions may not be rights-oriented, and interventions to strengthen rights may be gender-blind, to the detriment of either women or men. The nature of these GE and HR aspects should be addressed in the evaluation).
When considering the intervention to be evaluated, the manager will encounter a range of possibilities:
- GE and/or HR analyses and disaggregated data (by sex, by class, by ethnicity etc.) are available, and attention was given to GE and HR in the programme theory and program design. This will make it relatively easy to include GE and HR in an evaluation in a cost-effective manner
- GE and/or HR were not considered in the design and implementation of the intervention, and no disaggregated information is available in the plans or monitoring reports. The evaluators will still be able to gather data from different groups of stakeholders during the evaluation field work and assess the GE and HR dimensions of the intervention
All evaluations should include an assessment of the GE and HR dimensions of the intervention being assessed. This requirement should be in the Terms of Reference of the evaluation. In exceptional cases that do not include GE and HR in the evaluation, the Terms of Reference should explicitly include a rationale for this omission.
Tips: The preparation and planning process is critical to evaluation success. Do not underestimate the time and attention required at this preliminary stage. Good preparation will minimize risks and challenges as the evaluation is conducted and used.
