Regional Workshop on the UNDP Evaluation Policy Arab States

and methodologies) to ensure feedback and accountability of UNDP and the UN system in
general for their performance in these situations.
The capacity of public institutions to conduct evaluations, especially in view of the weak
accountability, democratic participation and governance in the region as a whole, is part of the
wider requirements that the state must meet to address economic and social demands. Evaluation
is not a stand-alone function and capacity can not be created overnight nor is it without costs. Yet,
the potential benefits of closer collaboration between UNDP and government to develop national
evaluation systems are large enough to justify the initial investment and the recurrent costs
needed to continuously innovate both in evaluation processes and results. Most participants felt
that using simpler M&E methodologies and learning from others could be a viable solution to
capacity gaps.
Recommended actions
• Institutionalise M&E function within COs and national systems to generate demand for
evaluations; a key starting point is the importance of dialogue between COs and national
counterparts to review experience, distil lessons and propose future actions (e.g. common
guidelines on roles and responsibilities)
• Build national capacity in M&E so that evaluation outcomes feed into national planning
processes; UNDP has outcome and strategic/thematic evaluations and planning for these
should be carried out in consultation with government while simultaneously developing
national capacities.
• Ensure that ERC, EvalNet and other corporate M&E knowledge management tools and
resources, such as <strong>Regional</strong> M&E Adviser and documentation of regional experience on
evaluations, are better utilized to help share experiences and knowledge and good
practices within and across the organization, as well as with national counterparts.
• Support “roundtable meeting” among senior government officials in the Arab region in
order to discuss M&E (with a special focus on evaluation) in relation to the development
priorities in their countries. The government representative from Egypt, for instance,
indicated that his country would be happy to host such a regional event.
• Develop in-house capacity – e.g. training of CO staff in technical skills such as drafting
ToRs and reviewing the work of external consultants, and external capacities nationally
and regionally.
• Encourage and facilitate linkages and cooperation schemes on M&E between private
firms and relevant national (including government) institutions at national and regional
levels as one of the main instruments to build M&E competences and foster greater
learning through M&E.
• Ensure core resource allocation for all UNDP evaluations within a programme cycle for
which Headquarter guidance on resource allocation for M&E to develop CO capacity is
required.
• Develop a comprehensive strategy for M&E in the crisis countries at the regional level,
based on lessons learned.
• Give higher priority to evaluation in crisis countries, including investment in human
resource development and relevant support to research bodies (both government and nongovernmental)
at national level.
• Create vetted expert roster for evaluators for the region as a whole.
• Develop innovative partnership with universities, private organizations and networks and
build on their expertise to enhance national capacity on evaluations.
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