“The new UNESCO Evaluation Policy provides a unique tool to Member States, to the Organization – to deepen the culture of learning, to deliver for results, to account for success and to undertake changes to improve,” said Irina Bokova. “It puts in place a comprehensive approach to ensure follow up to recommendations, through the development of more systematic Management Responses to all evaluations, for increased transparency and accountability.”

In this context, Dr Sukai Prom-Jackson, Inspector from JIU, presented the findings from a recent JIU study on the Analysis of the Evaluation Function in the UN System. After looking at evaluation functions in 28 participating organizations, the JIU study ranked UNESCO among the strongest in terms of its size and location, as well as other key components examined by the study such as the enabling environment for evaluation, the credibility, utility and the potential impact of the evaluation function. Dr Prom-Jackson also highlighted the areas in which UNESCO needed to further reform such as strengthening its decentralized evaluation function.

Ms Susanne Frueh, Director of UNESCO’s Internal Oversight Service used the opportunity of the information meeting to present to UNESCO Member States the Organization’s new Evaluation Policy. This ambitious roadmap for the centralized and decentralized evaluation functions was developed through an extensive consultation process within UNESCO and its Member States and was then peer reviewed by senior evaluation experts from a number of international organizations. The new Evaluation Policy is to be presented to the 196th session of the Executive Board in April 2015.

“All this has one goal – to shape an Organization that is fit for purpose,” declared Irina Bokova.

More information the JIU study as well as UNESCO’s new evaluation policy can be found on the IOS homepage

Read full speech of the Director-General