Assessing the quality of developmental evaluations at UNFPA
Resource date: 31 Jan 2019
In 2019, UNFPA Evaluation Office undertook the developmental evaluation of results-based management at UNFPA, which is the first developmental evaluation conducted at UNFPA. The purpose of developmental evaluations differs to traditional formative, summative, and accountability-oriented evaluations. In a developmental evaluation, as part of the evaluation process, real-time data is collected and analysed to guide ongoing decision-making and learning. This supports organization’s adaptation to emerging, dynamic and complex environments.
The evaluation function also places a strong emphasis on quality assurance of formative and summative evaluation processes and quality assessment of their final evaluation reports. While the existing evaluation quality assurance and assessment tools are suited to formative and summative evaluations, the uniqueness of the developmental evaluation process required a more appropriate evaluation assessment tool. Given the lack of any available tool for this purpose within and outside the UN system, the Evaluation Office has developed the first developmental evaluation-specific quality assessment grid and guidance.
The development of this new tool signifies UNFPA evaluation function’s commitment to diversify evaluation processes and products, in order to be as responsive to user needs. The use of tool will improve the overall quality of future developmental evaluations at UNFPA and beyond.
