Development Account Task Team on Evaluation (terms of reference)
Background
The Development Account is a funding facility for capacity development
projects of the economic and social entities of the United Nations
(DESA, the five UN Regional Commissions, UNCTAD, UNODC, UNEP, and UNHABITAT). Projects funded under the Account aim at achieving distinct
development impact through building capacity for national, subregional, regional and inter-regional economic and social cooperation
among developing countries. The projects also aim to ensure effective
follow-up to the United Nations conferences and summits in the economic
and social areas and serve as an operational extension to the normative
and analytical work of their implementing agencies. The Account
encourages cooperative efforts between the UN programmes’ crosssectoral, regional or interregional activities, and seeks to utilize
the technical, human and other resources available in developing
countries.
Evaluation is an essential function of the Development Account
programme and project management. Every project is required to conduct
an external evaluation funded from within its resources, in accordance
with the Development Account guidelines. The Programme Manager draws on
the project evaluations, as well as the project progress reports, when
preparing the biennial Progress Report to the General Assembly.
At the same time, the Account has not yet formalized and established
standards related to evaluation, including the formulation of generic
TORs for external evaluation, reporting requirements, and management
response to evaluation findings. It has yet to determine the optimal
approaches for conducting broad programmatic and cross-cutting
evaluations.
The Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions
(ACABQ) has recently recommended that the evaluation functions of the
Account be improved, and that the lessons learned feed into the design
of new projects and activities. OIOS, in its 2011 audit of the Account,
recommended that guidelines/common standards and feedback mechanisms on
project reporting and evaluation be strengthened. Implementing entities
have provided similar recommendations.
To strengthen the Account’s evaluation mechanisms, the Programme
Manager established a Task Team on Evaluation to address current
challenges, building on the evaluation experience and expertise of the
implementing entities and other knowledge resources.
Main tasks and outputs
The Task Team on Evaluation has three roles:
i)
Review the current practices of evaluating UNDA projects within
implementing agencies;
ii)
Review and improve the guidelines for UNDA project evaluations,
and other evaluation tools (template for ToR, etc);
iii) On the basis of identified needs, come up with recommendations on
strengthening the evaluation function of the Account, including
on processes and for programme evaluations.
In so doing, it will undertake the following:
(i)
Mapping of evaluation practices
Task: Map current arrangements, tools and practices for the
evaluation at programme level as well as at project level of
UNDA and no-UNDA activities; identify good practices and
assess the weaknesses in measuring the impact and results of
UNDA projects, as well as how lessons learnt are taken into
account in new project cycles. This will be completed
through a survey. An intranet based repository of practices
and tools will be used.
Output: Summary of good practices and lessons learned from
evaluations at programme and project level;
Timeline: End September.
(ii) Recommendations for strengthening the evaluation process of the
Account (issues that can be implemented within the current budget
and the discretional authority of the Development Account
Programme Manager):
Task: Recommend improvements to the evaluation function of the
Account, which could include the efficient use of the limited
evaluation funding, evaluation structure and processes,
identified needs for development of standardized tools, mechanism
to share evaluation findings and recommendations and promote the
implementation of such recommendations.
Output: Preliminary Report on strengthening the evaluation
function of the Development Account. The report will include the
following parts:
1) Survey analysis and identified needs
2) How to strengthen the efficiency of Development
Account projects’ evaluation processes
3) Suggestions on how to improve the structure and
evaluation processes of the Development Account
4) Suggestions of dissemination and follow-up mechanisms
to Development Account evaluation recommendations and
findings.
Timeline: End October.
Based on the mapping exercise and the preliminary report the task team
will make suggestions at 2 levels:
(iii)
Quick wins to improve the existing evaluation practices
Task: Based on the mapping and the discussions for the
preliminary report identify issues that can be addressed quickly
to improve the evaluation function, such as strengthening the
guidelines for project evaluation, the development of a sample
TOR for evaluation, templates for project evaluation reports,
final reports as well as management response(s) to the
evaluation, etc.
Output: Revised guidelines for project evaluation (currently only
evaluation report templates exist (see
un.org/esa/devaccount/projects/guidelines.html); sample/generic
TOR for evaluation of Development Account projects; template(s)
for project evaluation reports and a final reports, and
management response template.
Timeline: End November.
(iv) Recommendations for the way forward for strengthening the
evaluation function of the Account including on processes and
programme evaluations: (issues that might require
intergovernmental guidance and/or need funds)
Task: Recommend improvements to the evaluation function of the
Account, which could include system(s) for sharing findings,
lessons learned flowing into the programming, needed evaluation
capacities.
Output: Report on the way forward for the evaluation function of
the Development Account. The report will include the following
parts:
1) Survey analysis and identified needs
2) How to approach programme level evaluations
3) How to strengthen the efficiency of UNDA projects’
evaluation processes
4) Suggestions on capacity building on evaluation for
agencies implementing Development Account projects
5) Annexes: revised templates and guidelines.
Timeline: To be submitted to the Development Account Steering
Committee by mid January 2013.
The Task Team will take due consideration of UNEG norms and standards
as benchmarks.
Composition
The Programme Manager will invite implementing entities to nominate
participants with strong, proven evaluation expertise.
The Development Account Programme Management Team will serve as an exofficio member of the Team and provide secretariat support. The Task
Team may call upon the assistance of external experts, as necessary.
Working arrangements
The Team will elect a Convenor from among the members. The Team is
expected to develop a work plan and to agree on sharing of tasks among
themselves.
The Convenor will call for meetings and steer the Task Team towards the
achievement of the work plan, with assistance from the DA-PMT.
The meetings of the Task Team will be conducted via email, video or
conference calls. The frequency of meetings will be agreed by the Task
Team guided by the need to complete its work by December 2012. The
Team’s work plan and the time schedule for delivery of outputs will be
agreed upon during its first meeting.
The Task Team, in close collaboration with DA-PMT, will present its
findings to the DA Steering Committee for discussion and developing
recommendations for the Programme Manager’s consideration.
The Task Team will be dissolved upon the completion of its assignments,
unless otherwise decided.