International Atomic Energy Agency

The International Atomic Energy Agency is the world's central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the nuclear field. It works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, contributing to international peace and security and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
 

The IAEA’s Programme Evaluation (PE) function conducts systematic and evidence-based assessments of the IAEA’s policies, programmes, services and functions, that help management ensure that the organization makes a difference. It is part of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and has six permanent evaluation staff members.  

Evaluations constitute an essential element of the IAEA’s results-based management system. They examine the relevance, effectiveness, coherence, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the Agency’s work, identify good practices, and areas for improvement. The results of evaluations inform new policies, strategies and programmes, thereby supporting management’s efforts to ensure successful implementation of the Agency’s mandate, and to demonstrate achievement of results. Evaluations enhance accountability, and
they are key tools for organizational learning and development.

Promoting a culture of evaluation in-house
The Programme Evaluation function also supports organizational efforts to strengthen results-based management. It focuses on planning for and assessing results, as well as on learning through and from evaluative exercises. To that end, OIOS established an Evaluation Community of Practice that includes interested staff from across the organization. OIOS supports this community through capacity building, sharing of good practices, other advice, and the provision of tools. 

Independence

The Office of Internal Oversight Services, which includes the Programme Evaluation function, reports directly to the Director General. OIOS also periodically reports on the results of its work to dedicated committees of the IAEA’s Board of Governors. OIOS is solely responsible for the conduct of all evaluations (except for self-evaluations and decentralized evaluations), including the selection of evaluators and the development of terms of reference. It is thus operationally independent within the Organization.

Agenda Setting and Evaluation Planning

The OIOS programme evaluation work plan is developed annually, based on an assessment of evidence gaps. The work plan considers organizational priorities, upcoming decision-making points, major areas of programmatic spending and related risks. It also takes into account suggestions from Member States and IAEA managers, and issues emerging from past  assessments. The OIOS work plan is approved by the Director General.

Stakeholder involvement and promoting national evaluation capacity development

Evaluations are conducted in a participatory manner, by regularly consulting with evaluation stakeholders throughout the evaluation process to ensure ownership of evaluation results, implementation of findings, and to enhance learning from evaluations. Evaluations are often accompanied by an evaluation reference group established by OIOS, which includes key internal and external stakeholders. OIOS also monitors the implementation of recommendations and presents an annual status report to Member States.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance within the evaluation function is done by the Head of Programme Evaluation, and through internal peer reviews, and exchanges with peer organizations. External peer reviews are also envisaged. 

Use of evaluation

Evaluation reports, including findings, conclusions and recommendations, are shared with the relevant managers. Managers are expected to submit a management response and to formally accept (or reject) the recommendations, and to present an action plan for their implementation including a target date. The implementation of the recommendations is subsequently monitored until full implementation is verified. A status report on the implementation of evaluation recommendations is presented each year to the Board of Governors.