United Nations contributions to national evaluation capacity development and the evolution of national evaluation systems

The global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the critical role of evaluation in translating its transformative vision into reality. It calls for review processes to be “rigorous and based on evidence informed by country-led evaluations and data which are high-quality, accessible, timely, reliable, and disaggregated”, and highlights the opportunity and need to support and develop national evaluation systems and capacities.

This progress report records activities by United Nations agencies since the adoption of the 2014 Resolution on building capacity for the evaluation of development activities at the country level and suggest areas for improvement.

It focuses primarily on support by United Nations agencies to national evaluation systems, with additional reference to other development partners. It includes a document review, six country case studies (Benin, Costa Rica, Kenya, Morocco, Philippines and Sri Lanka), a survey of United Nations agencies, and interviews with members of the UNEG National Evaluation Capacity Development (NECD) Working Group, directors of evaluation offices and key external stakeholders.