United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs

Evaluation Function

The Programme, Monitoring & Evaluation Unit (PMEU) is in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). The unit strengthens the work of UN DESA through the internal development, coordination and implementation of a robust programme, monitoring and evaluation framework that enhances the effectiveness, efficiency, accountability and coordination of the Department’s work.

Evaluation plays a key role in improving programme performance, by identifying gaps, lessons learned and strengthening monitoring. PMEU serves as the focal point for evaluations and supports the Executive Office (EO) and the Capacity Development Programme Management Office (CDPMO) on audits of UN DESA; reviews and updates UN DESA’s evaluation policy in alignment with UN mandates and guidance on evaluation, the Secretariat-wide Administrative Instruction for Evaluation, and UNEG Norms and Standards; coordinates the proposed programme plan and monitoring reports for decision making in close collaboration with the Department’s respective subprogrammes through the network of Monitoring and Evaluation focal points, and with the support of other Monitoring and Evaluation units in the UN system.

The UNDESA evaluation function also includes the Strategic Programme Development, Coordination and Partnership Section of CDPMO, which provides overall guidance and support to the Department’s capacity development project evaluations, including incorporating lessons learned and good practices into future programming. It issues guidelines on planning and evaluation of capacity development projects, which operationalize the direction of the departmental evaluation policy and establish clear roles, responsibilities, and procedures for conducting project-level evaluations. The Section has a P-5 and P-3 Programme Management Officer who oversee and support the department’s capacity development projects. In addition, CDPMO hosts the programme management team, including a dedicated evaluation officer, for the Development Account (DA), which funds projects by the 10 implementing entities of the UN Secretariat.

Snapshot

Name: Programme, Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (PMEU) and Strategic Programme Development, Coordination and Partnership Section in CDPMO

Human Resources (as of April 2019): 

PMEU - Unit Head P5, supported by P4 and JPO
CDPMO – P5 and P3. Also, CDPMO hosts the programme management team, including a dedicated evaluation officer, for the Development Account, which funds projects by the 10 implementing entities of the UN Secretariat

Priorities:

• Conduct high-quality evaluations that are useful and credible
• Increase the implementation of evaluation findings within UN DESA
• Facilitate monitoring tools for informed decision making for senior managers

●      Enhance coordination and knowledge sharing among M & E focal points

Number of evaluations conducted:

In addition to yearly self-evaluations of the Department, OIOS conducted evaluations of UN DESA in 2019, 2011 and 2009. As part of the OIOS biennial evaluation report, it also provides an assessment of evaluation capacity and practices for each Secretariat entity in form of an evaluation dashboard/scorecard. Also, UNDESA conducts 5-10 capacity development project evaluations annually. 

Evaluation Policy:

DESA’s evaluation policy was endorsed in July 2012 as an important step towards enhancing UN DESA’s evaluation function and to ensure its utility, credibility, independence and alignment with UNEG Norms and Standards.  It has undergone revisions based on renewed UN mandates and updated guidance on evaluation, the Administrative Instruction for Evaluation, and other evaluation documents within and outside the UN system. The first review and updates to the policy occurred in 2016, with the most recent revisions completed in March 2022. The policy is complemented by the UN DESA guidelines on the planning and management of capacity development project evaluations, which were first issued in 2017 and are being updated (as of September 2023).

Independence

The Programme, Monitoring & Evaluation Unit (PMEU), as the central evaluation capacity in UN DESA, is responsible to the Under-Secretary-General, reporting through the Chief of Office of the Under-Secretary-General. PMEU operates independently from other operational and management functions within UN DESA.

Agenda Setting & Evaluation Planning

The Programme, Monitoring & Evaluation Unit (PMEU) prepares an annual workplan in consultation with the USG, senior managers, Chief of Office and M & E Focal Points. The workplan ensures the timelines of high-quality evaluations and implementation of its findings, the drafting of monitoring reports for informed decision making and ways to enhance coordination and knowledge sharing across the Department.

Quality Assurance

UN DESA evaluations are guided by its evaluation policy and conducted based on the UNEG Norms and Standards. Peer reviews or reference groups composed of internal and external experts are also used in the evaluation process.

Use of Evaluation

Evaluation results are discussed and disseminated across the Department to ensure that senior managers are informed of the findings and recommendations. Senior managers are requested to ensure that final recommendations are implemented in programme plans and budgets.

For capacity development evaluations, all evaluation recommendations are entered in the centralized evaluation recommendation tracker to facilitate the dissemination of lessons learned across the Department, as well as to improve transparency. 

Joint Evaluation

The Programme, Monitoring & Evaluation Unit (PMEU) at UN DESA is a member of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) and works regularly with OIOS in the UN Secretariat. Due to the departmental focus of its evaluation work, PMEU does not currently engage in joint evaluations with other UNEG members.

However, the Development Account Programme Management Team in CDPMO conducted in 2021-2022 an evaluation of the DA 10th tranche Programme on Statistics and Data, which was jointly implemented by the 10 DA implementing entities and responded to the needs of Member States in generating and collecting data to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The evaluation was supported by the evaluation units of all the 10 implementing entities.