The term ‘evaluation planning’ is used here to capture the work done to scan existing and planned programming and decide what will be evaluated in a given period of time (biannually for UN Woman planning) and when. Planning for upcoming evaluations, across the breadth of programming in an organization unit needs to be closely aligned with other strategic and operational planning so that:
- Resources (time and money) are made available for evaluations, and
- Evaluations inform strategies and organizational understanding of what is working and what are the priorities
Evaluation planning at UN Woman is closely linked to the organization’s Strategic Plan (both Development Results and Management Results) and is governed by the UN Woman Evaluation Policy. Planning, at UN Woman, is done for decentralized evaluations by Programme Units (Head of SRO, geographic section, thematic or operational unit) and by the Evaluation Unit for corporate evaluations.
Advice on Biannual Decentralized Evaluation Planning and Biannual Corporate Evaluation Planning accompanies this Guide. Tools are also provided to assist managers in their selection of what to evaluate – Decentralized Evaluation Planning – Criteria for Selection and to develop a Decentralized Evaluation Plan. While these are all specific requirements for and within UN Woman, they may also be helpful to others using this Guide.
Information on evaluation planning provides a foundation for selecting the intervention / programme to be evaluated. The programme may have: potential for up scaling or replication; particular relevance to strategies or priorities; potential for the generation of knowledge or broader learning on GE and / or HR; a need for evidence to make decisions on its continuation; or there may be a donor / partner requirement for an evaluation. Further information is provided in the evaluation Criteria for Selection.
In addition, individual programmes should include an evaluation plan indicating the timing, type and resources for evaluation. Further information on evaluation plans is found in When & how to consider evaluation.
Tips: Evaluation planning should be a component of the planning process. Remember to use the results of past evaluations when thinking about future evaluation plans.
