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 UN-HABITAT). Projects funded under the Account aim at achieving distinct development impact through building capacity for national, sub-regional, 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’ cross-sectoral, 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 practicesand 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 AccountProgramme 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)Suggestionson how to improve the structure andevaluation processes of the Development Account
4)Suggestionsof dissemination and follow-up mechanisms to Development Account evaluation recommendations and findings.
Timeline:EndOctober.
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)Suggestionson 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 midJanuary 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 ex-officio 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.