United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Evaluation Handbook

VI. A. Users of Evaluation

The users of evaluation are those stakeholders who will be consulted in the course of the evaluation exercise and who have a stake in the evaluation recommendations and/or responsibilities in implementing them

Users are involved throughout the whole evaluation process, starting at the planning stage of an evaluation, when they are invited to contribute to the evaluation questions. They are also invited to discuss preliminary evaluation findings at a debriefing session and to comment on the draft report.

Users mainly include the Core Learning Partners, e.g. UNODC Project/Programme Managers, beneficiary Governments, donors, implementing partners, project beneficiaries and Non-Governmental Organisations, United Nations organizations, other international organizations, research institutes, etc.

Besides the Core Learning Partners, users also include other stakeholders consulted in the evaluation process, who have an interest or stake in the programme or project to be evaluated, e.g. UNODC Senior Management and Member States.

The value of evaluation depends on its use, which is in turn determined by a number of up-stream key factors which include, but are not limited to, the following:

-	Relevance of the evaluation, in terms of timing, so as to make evaluation findings available when decisions are taken;
-	Quality/credibility of the evaluation, which derives from independence, impartiality, and a properly defined and inclusive methodology;
-	Acceptance of the evaluation recommendations, which partially depends on the above two points;
-	Dissemination and use of evaluation findings.