Why EvalGender+

The recent UN General Assembly resolution on national evaluation capacity development, co-sponsored by 48 countries, reiterates the importance of strengthening national capacity for evaluation, recognizes the designation of 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation, and invites for a more coordinated support in strengthening national capacity for the evaluation of national development policies and programmes.

In line with the UN Resolution, and to address the challenge above, a global multi-stakeholder partnership to leverage existing initiatives to strengthen the demand, supply and use of equity focused and gender responsive evaluations is paramount. Stronger coordination and networking among Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including Voluntary Organizations for Cooperation in Evaluation (VOPEs), UN agencies, international organizations, governments, academia, think tanks and private foundations could maximize existing experiences by creating effective synergies among these stakeholders and ultimately bigger impact.

WHY NOW

As the world transitions into the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, with an increased emphasis on gender equality and reducing inequalities, and the General Assembly adopts a new resolution reaffirming the importance of strengthening national evaluation capacity recognizing 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation, there is an unprecedented opportunity to better inform the post-2015 SDGs at the global, regional and national level with credible gender responsive and equity focused evaluative evidence. Channeling this evidence into the post-2015 agenda will be achieved through engendering evaluation systems and policies, requiring the full coordinated participation of all interested stakeholders.

WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACHIEVE

EvalGender+ wants to contribute to achieving social equity and gender equality by engendering development policies through equity focused and gender responsive evaluation.

HOW WE WILL ACHIEVE IT

EvalGender+ intends to coordinate and maximize efforts in strengthening equity focused and gender responsive evaluation, through a) social mobilization of key actors; b) promotion of practical innovation; and c) facilitation of learning and sharing of experiences.

MOBILIZE AND ADVOCATE

Impact through social mobilization

Through social mobilization, EvalGender + will enable policy makers, members of parliaments, government official, evaluators, civil society representatives and advocates, and other interested actors to coordinate efforts to better engender national evaluation systems and policies.

Proposed actions

Engender:

  • 2015 International Year of Evaluation, by advocating equity-focused and gender responsive evaluation will be one of the four main themes to be discussed  at the 22 international events that will host the  “evaluation torch”
  • The 2016-2020 Global Evaluation Agenda, by advocating equity-focused and gender-responsive evaluation will be included
  • Global SDGs and national development strategies, by advocating they will be evaluated with an equity focused and gender responsive approach
  • Parliamentarian Forums for evaluations, by advocating equity focused and gender responsive evaluation are included in their mission and workplans
  • National Evaluation Systems, by supporting the institutionalization of equity focused and gender responsive evaluation at the national level
  • Voluntary Organizations of Professional Evaluators, by encouraging inclusion of equity focused and gender responsive evaluation principles in their mission, standards and activities
  • Evaluation functions or policies of UN agencies, by encouraging they comply with the UNEG guidance on integrating human rights and gender equality in evaluation

INNOVATE

Impact through innovation in practice

EvalGender+ will facilitate innovation in equity focused and gender responsive evaluation by engaging the community of policy makers and evaluators to advance and promote the demand, supply and use of new approaches, strategies and methodologies that can respond to achieving gender equality and social equity.

Proposed actions

  • Promote and continue developing equity focused and gender equality e-learning courses using public platforms such as EvalPartners and upcoming UNEG e-learnings
  • Publish papers on equity focused and gender equality evaluation in scientific journals
  • Nurture a global repository of gender-responsive evaluations and evaluation of gender equality initiatives, expanding the existing Gender Equality Evaluation Portal
  • Promote the development and use of systemic reviews on gender issues through joint initiatives such as  the on-going UNWomen/UNEG/EvalPartners one
  • Document Good Practices, including through the systematization of the  Evaluation Performance Indicator of the UN System Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality

SHARE

Impact though learning and knowledge sharing

EvalGender+ will serve as a platform to share knowledge, learning and experiences on the best ways to strengthen the demand, supply and use of equity focused and gender responsive evaluations.

Proposed actions

  • Organize webinars and short (15’) virtual coffee-breaks to share knowledge on equity focused and gender responsive evaluation
  • Develop a 2.0 webpage, including crowdsourced interactive map for initiatives relevant to equity focused and gender-responsive evaluations
  • Expand the Gender and Evaluation Community of Practice/Blog Gender and Evaluation
  • Promote equity focused and gender equality evaluation thought social media (twitter; LinkedIn; YouTube)

WHAT’S NEXT

The shaping and launch of EvalGender+ will be participatory in nature, and will leverage existing processes within the International Year of Evaluation, by taking advantage of the existing events organized by several stakeholders within the framework of the year of evaluation.

EvalGender+ will be formally launched at the 2015 Global Evaluation Week to be held at the Parliament of Nepal in Kathmandu on 30 November – 4 December 2015.

If you would like additional information about EvalGender please contact

Svetlana Negroustoueva, EvalGender+ Co-chair, negroustoueva@gmail.com

Inga Sniukaite, EvalGender+ Co-chair, inga.sniukaite@unwomen.org

Florencia Tateossian, Florencia.tateossian@unwomen.org