United Nations Department of Peace Operations and Department of Field Support
United Nations Department of Peace Operations and Department of Field Support
The Department for Peace Operations (DPO) is dedicated to assisting Member States and the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General in their efforts to maintain international peace and security. It integrates civilians, police, and military personnel to create the conditions for long-term peace in the areas of conflict. Officially DPO was created in 1992, but its roots can be traced back to 1948 when the UN's first peacekeeping operations were created. In 2016, the total number of personnel serving in 16 peacekeeping operations is approximately 121,780. The approved budget for UN Peacekeeping operations for the fiscal year 1 July 2015-30 June 2016 is about $8.27 billion. By way of comparison, this is less than half of one per cent of world military expenditures (estimated at $1,747 billion in 2013). The Department of Field Support (DFS) provides dedicated support to DPO, as well as special political missions and other field presences. It provides support in the areas of budget and finance, logistics, Information, communication and technology (ICT), human resources and general administration to help field missions promote peace and security. DFS was established in 2007, with the General Assembly's approval of the Secretary-General's proposal for its creation in the context of strengthening the capacity of the UN to manage and sustain peace operations.
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
Evaluation Function
The DPO-DFS Evaluation Team is located in the Policy, Evaluation and Training Division (DPET) which is a shared resource for both Departments. The Evaluation Team provides both Departments with an internal evaluation mechanism whose goal is to strengthen the performance of peacekeeping operations worldwide. A DPO-DFS evaluation policy was adopted in 2008.
In the 2015-16 fiscal year, there were three staff members working in the Evaluation Team with an annual budget of USD $230,000 (travel and consultancy combined). The Evaluation Team is responsible for planning DPO and DFS' internal evaluations; leading, conducting and/or organizing up to six internal evaluations per year; briefing the Senior Management Team (SMT) on evaluation results; and, providing guidance and support to programme-led evaluations conducted at the Divisional and mission levels.
Promoting a culture of evaluation in-house
The Evaluation Team provides support to the development of in-house evaluation capacities in both DPO and DFS.
Snapshot
Evaluation policy:
- Not available.
Priorities
- Implementation of the annual work programme.
Human Resources
- Chief: F
- Evaluation Officers : Total 1 (F)
- Support staff : 1 (M)
- Decentralised evaluation staff : None
Evaluations produced per year by central unit and by decentralized units
- 4 evaluations conducted in 2015-16 performance period.
Key resource: web link/key document here
Independence
DPET provides direct support to both DPO and DFS as a shared resource. The Chief of the Evaluation Team directly reports to the Director of DPET who then reports to both Under Secretary Generals of DPO and DFS. The Chief of the Evaluation Team has the authority to manage the implementation of the evaluation work plan, as approved by the DPO and DFS SMT and has the authority to control the evaluation budget. Evaluation reports are issued by the DPET Director of the Policy, Evaluation and Training Division.
Agenda Setting & Evaluation Planning
Resources for evaluation are requested in the annual budget submission. The annual work programme of the Evaluation Team is proposed by the Evaluation Advisory Board (EAB) which comprises senior staff drawn equally from DPO and DFS. Subsequently, the evaluation priorities are presented to the SMT of DPO and DFS for approval.
Stakeholder involvement and national evaluation capacity development
The Evaluation Team ensures the involvement of stakeholders throughout the evaluation process (i.e. design/ planning, implementation and follow-up). Evaluations are conducted by an integrated team comprised of staff from the Evaluation Team and specialists from DPO and DFS. Evaluation teams take a gender balanced approach but do not involve professionals from the concerned countries or regions to be evaluated.
Quality Assurance
The evaluation office has quality assurance guidelines which stipulate that evaluation reports be evidence based, concise, provide good structure including methods and limitations, and the quality of recommendations.
Use of Evaluation
The Evaluation Team is an internal management tool for DPO and DFS to examine and assess peacekeeping missions and activities, identify issues and propose remedies. Evaluation findings inform policy development and training activities, strengthen Headquarters' ability to provide strategic guidance to mission leadership, strengthen DPO and DFS planning processes and improve feedback on operational issues for Troop and Police Contributing Countries, Member States, and legislative bodies. The evaluations have been used to provide evidence on the effective functioning of newly introduced mechanisms and policies. Evaluation reports are considered to be internal documents.
Joint Evaluation
The Evaluation Team also conducts joint evaluations with other departments in the Secretariat including the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (DSS) and the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA).