Human Rights and Gender Equality

All UNODC evaluations are guided by the principles of gender equality, human rights and leaving no one behind, being fully line with UNODC’s Evaluation Policy and Handbook, UNEG Evaluation and Norms and Standards, as well as the 2030 Agenda. Read more below on IES' work in this regard.

GUIDANCE ON GENDER-RESPONSIVE EVALUATIONS

Guidance Briefs on Gender Mainstreaming in Evaluation for Managers (infographic) and Evaluators (infographic) address identified challenges in moving towards transformative change for gender equality.

Gender Responsive Evaluations at UNODC Guiding Document presents the most important frameworks for gender-responsive evaluations and explains what a gender-responsive evaluation entails, as well as provides practical guidance to mainstream a gender perspective throughout the various stages of the evaluation process.

Guidance Note for Managers and Evaluators address mitigation of potential risks in the context of a pandemic or other crises, including selecting respondents in an inclusive manner and adjusting data collection to ensure under-represented group, further addressing identified challenges in implementing gender-related evaluation recommendations. See also Evaluation and COVID-19.

INVESTMENTS IN INCLUSIVE AND GENDER-RESPONSIVE EVALUATIONS AT UNODC

The Strategic Evaluation of UNOV/UNODC's work to advance Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (GEEW) was finalized in 2022 (Evaluation Report; 2-page Evaluation Brief), with its results being integrated in the development of the UNOV/UNODC Gender Strategy 2022-2026. The innovative methodology used by IES for this evaluation included additional consultation rounds to ensure an independent, inclusive, participatory, and utilization-focused approach to meet organizational information needs. The strategic evaluation is further aligned with UNODC's Strategy 2021-2025 highlighting that UNODC will conduct evaluations in its mandates areas of work as well as utilize evaluation results to create a learning organization.

Furthermore, UNODC evaluations for 2022 "exceeded" the requirements set by the Evaluation Performance Indicator of the UN-SWAP on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. To ensure independent evaluations provide credible information for evidence-based programming, IES has commissioned independent external evaluation quality assessments since 2014, where each evaluation report is reviewed and assessed by a team of independent external consultants. This assessment includes the review and scoring of the Integration of Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women for UN-SWAP Evaluation Performance Indicators, showing very good results for 2022.

Moreover, all UNODC evaluations are guided by the principles of gender equality and leaving no one behind, thereby fully implementing gender-responsive evaluation methods and tools, assessing to what extent UNODC interventions address gender equality and issues such as power relations, social transformation, equal inclusion and participation, as well as the empowerment of women, especially important in the context of a pandemic or other crises. This also includes the Evaluator Toolkit for Evaluating Interventions on Preventing and Countering Crime and Terrorism, which fully mainstreams gender equality aspects, referencing materials and resources to guide evaluators in this regard. At least one in each evaluation team should further have expertise in gender equality.

GENDER MAINSTREAMING

The process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is gender equality.

GENDER EQUALITY

An overarching and long-term development goal. Gender mainstreaming is not a goal in itself but a set of context-specific, strategic approaches as well and technical and institutional processes adopted to achieve gender equality. Achieving this goal requires systematic and purposeful integration of gender at all stages of the project cycle from strategic planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all UNODC programmes and projects.

INVESTMENTS IN HUMAN RIGHTS IN UNODC EVALUATIONS

In line with UNEG Evaluation Norms and Standards and the 2030 Agenda, all UNODC independent evaluations are guided by the principles of human rights and leaving no one behind, with one dedicated section on human rights and the whole evaluation process fully incorporating human rights considerations. At least one in each evaluation team should further have expertise in human rights and gender equality. Moreover, evaluation tools and guidance have been adapted to specifically address marginalized, disabled, hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations, especially important in the context of a pandemic or other crises.

This also includes the Evaluator Toolkit for Evaluating Interventions on Preventing and Countering Crime and Terrorism, which fully mainstreams human rights aspects, referencing materials and resources to guide evaluators in this regard. Moreover, the Meta-Synthesis of independent evaluations and oversight results under the Global Counter Terrorism Strategy (to be launched in 2022) has placed particular emphasis on identifying human rights-related evaluation results and entails a dedicated chapter on human rights and gender equality.