Regional Workshop on the UNDP Evaluation Policy Arab States

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To Country Offices working together with Government: • Strengthen the role of government to support an institutional framework for evaluation that is embedded in institutional arrangements at country level and able to implement strategies consistent with national needs and resources. • 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. • Support the development of national evaluation systems and infrastructure with relevant support from UNDP and other UN organizations. • Develop a common partnership strategy with government counterparts and other national level stakeholders on the use of evaluation findings and recommendation, and allocate sufficient financial resources for such activities. • Improve the role and mode of broader civil society participation from the design stage and throughout the evaluation process (e.g. by including civil society groups in steering committees, consultations on evaluation objectives, findings and conclusions etc.). • Government needs to demonstrate greater commitment and interest to ensure compliance with evaluation plans. • All evaluation plans at CO level should specify source of funding to ensure accountability. • Enhance M&E skills among mid-level second layer operational staff at government agencies/ministries. • Institutionalise M&E function within COs and national systems to generate demand for evaluations through systematic dialogue between COs and national counterparts to review experience, distil lessons and propose future actions (e.g. common guidelines on roles and responsibilities) Please see the workshop website for further details: http://stone.undp.org/undpweb/eo/evalnet/workshop/policy_launch/as.cfm 4
1 .0. Introduction In June 2006, the Executive Board endorsed the Evaluation Policy for UNDP. The policy reaffirms the central tenets of evaluation in UNDP, the guiding principles and norms, the requirements, and the roles and responsibilities at all levels of the organization. To launch the implementation of the policy, and discuss its implications with national counterparts, a series of regional workshops has been planned by the Evaluation Office (EO) in collaboration with the <strong>Regional</strong> Bureaux. The workshops were intended for UNDP Country Offices (COs) and national government staff responsible for planning or making decisions on evaluation. The first such workshop focused on the Asia-Pacific region, and was held in Bangkok in mid-October, 2006, and was followed by others in Africa, Europe CIS and Latin America. The last workshop, focusing on the Arab States, took place in Amman, Jordan, from 4 – 6 February, 2007. 1.1 Objectives of the <strong>Workshop</strong> The objective of the workshop was to establish a rational basis for implementing the policy in the context of regional and national priorities and challenges by: 1. Developing a comprehensive understanding of the UNDP evaluation policy and its implications for implementation. 2. Enhancing understanding of how the UNDP evaluation function provides a basis for accountability, performance improvement, learning, and knowledge development. 3. Developing an effective and rational approach in carrying out roles and responsibilities in evaluation in partnership with government and other key stakeholders. The workshop also addressed a number of cross-cutting issues including: the alignment of the policy with national evaluation systems and institutions, ways of enhancing collaboration in evaluation with national partners, and meeting the requirements of UN reform for coherence and harmonization. It also addressed evaluation in areas of increasing importance in the Arab region such as UNDP’s development support in conflict-affected countries and gender mainstreaming. 1.2 Participation Over sixty delegates including representatives from sixteen UNDP COs and nine government agencies attended the workshop. There were also representatives from UNIFEM, UNFPA, the <strong>Regional</strong> Service Centre in Beirut, the <strong>Regional</strong> Bureau for Arab States, the Office of Audit and Performance Review, and the Evaluation Office (see Annex 2 for the participants list). 1.3 Overview of sessions The workshop was divided into four sessions running over two and a-half days (see Annex 1 for the full agenda.). These sessions were delivered via plenary presentations and discussions, country case presentations, group analyses, and practical exercises. During the opening session, Luc Stevens, the UN Resident Coordinator in Jordan, welcomed the participants and emphasized the improvement of evaluation to ensure management response in the form of more focused intervention strategies. He also highlighted the relevance of such a workshop given that UNDP now has its first Evaluation Policy approved by its Executive Board at the UN. Professor Samir Radwan delivered a keynote presentation in which he argued the importance of evaluation for the region from a macro perspective. He highlighted that there is no shortage of diagnosis of 5
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Regional Workshop on the UNDP Evaluation Policy Arab States

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