International Labour Organization

Evaluation Function

The ILO evaluation function is concerned with three main outcomes: improved use of evaluation by management and ILO constituents for governance;  harmonized Office-wide evaluation practice to support transparency and accountability, in accordance with UNEG norms and standards; and promoting an evaluation culture to expand knowledge, skills and tools to improve organizational performance. ILO is in the preparatory phase of revising its five-year strategy which was established in March 2005. The ILO Governing Body (GB) adopted the standing strategy as a result of an Independent External Evaluation (IEE) which was conducted in 2010 and which reviewed the progress and performance made since 2005. In 2016, another IEE will be conducted to set the way forward, building on the performance and quality achievements from the first five year experience. 

With the launch of a communication strategy and an evaluation manager certification programme, EVAL has significantly broadened the evaluation culture at ILO in the last two years.  So far EVAL has completed five training sessions for evaluation managers, with close to 100 trainees, and in July 2015 we have certified 22 evaluation managers. Given this level of experience EVAL is now preparing to assess the impact of the certification process, with the aim to make adjustment in the training materials where necessary.

In addition, EVAL has developed a broad range of guidance documents, templates, checklists and protocols to support the Evaluation Policy Guidelines, all of which are available on the EVAL website.

Snapshot

The Evaluation Office (EVAL) has a mixed central /decentralized structure. Currently there are six staff members in headquarters, with an additional five evaluation professionals in decentralized evaluation units. Staff in the central evaluation office manage or coordinate independent governance-level evaluations including strategy (programme and budget level) and Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) evaluations. All other types of evaluations are decentralized and managed directly by sectors and regions, with EVAL providing quality oversight and final approval.

Priorities

• Improve link between evaluation and decision making
• Strengthen capacity of staff and constituents on evaluation

Competitive advantage:

• Independence
• Decentralized structure with central quality oversight

Human Resources:

• Director
• Evaluators at HQ level : Total 5 ; F=2 and M=3
• Support staff : Total 1 (F)
• Decentralized evaluation staff to the regions : Total 5; F=4 and M=1
• M&E officer in technical cooperation programmes: an estimated 10

Evaluations produced per year by central unit and by decentralized units (where applicable)

• Centralized governance level: 3-4 per year
• Decentralized independent project evaluations: 60-80 per year
• Decentralized self and itnernal project evaluations: 30-40 per year

Key resource: web link/key document here

• Evaluation Unit website

Independence

The Evaluation Office is an independent unit reporting directly to the Office of the Director-General. EVAL's structure and modalities of operation are designed to protect its functional independence. EVAL is accountable for the systematic monitoring of follow-up to management recommendations for our country programme and strategy evaluations, and then reporting on such follow-up to the GB. Staff in the evaluation unit is recruited through a competitive process with the Director of Evaluation playing a key role in the recruitment process managed by the human resources department.

In addition to the above, an Evaluation Advisory Committee was established which meets four times per year with senior management to strengthen internal review of organizational performance issues, management follow-up to strategy and country programme independent evaluations, and to identify any other matters which may need to br brought to the attention of  the Office of the Director-General.

Agenda Setting & Evaluation Planning

EVAL conducts two independent strategy evaluations and one country/regional independent evaluation per year.  In addition, EVAL co-ordinates with its decentralized evaluation focal points internal reviews of its Decent Work Country Programmes. Meta-studies on the quality of these internal country programme reviews are commissioned by EVAL and made available on its public website.  Each year there are additionally about three to four other ad-hoc evaluations requested by the Governing Body on departmental or thematic issues. Findings of these evaluations are submitted as part of the Annual Evaluation Report to ILO's Governing Body. 

Stakeholder involvement and promoting national evaluation capacity development:  As a principle, stakeholders are involved at the design, implementation and follow-up stages of the evaluation but the extent of their involvement depends on time and resources. 

Quality Assurance

Quality standards are in place in keeping with OECD/DAC guidelines and UNEG norms and standards. EVAL conducts biennial quality appraisals of its decentralized project evaluations, as well as organizational performance reviews of its country programme and strategy evaluations. These independent assessments are available on EVAL's website. 

Use of Evaluation

The mechanism for follow-up to high-level governance evaluation takes place at two levels. EVAL assesses the follow-up provided by the Office for consideration by the Evaluation Advisory Committee which determines whether it is adequate. Their assessment is subsequently communicated to the Governing Body as part of ILO's Annual Evaluation Report.

Follow-up to decentralized project evaluations is carried out for all independent project evlauations with a budget over US$ one million.  The quality of the response, and the participation of stakeholders and constituents in that process, is reported in a  a Management Response Matrix eavch years in EVAL's Annual Report submitted to the Governing Body. Evaluations are widely disseminated internally and externally, and lessons learned and good practices are extracted from reports and made available as searchable data modules on EVALs knowledge sharing platform. Ad hoc management reports can be generated using its knodwledge sharing platform to identify lessons learned and good practices on specific thematic areas of ILO's work to improve future project and programme design.

Joint Evaluation

As part of decentralized evaluation, ILO participates in the conduct of joint evaluations and has guidance on maximizing the benefit of these experiences with its UN partners.