The Independent Evaluation Section (IES) plays a critical role in contributing to UNODC's accountability and evaluation-based decison-making in the response to drugs, crime and terrorism. It does so by conducting independent evaluations at policy, programme and project levels. Through the UN Evaluation Group (UNEG), as well as the 2030 Agenda and in line with UN Reforms, the evaluation architecture in the UN system experiences a call for renewal and change. IES fully contributes to building an infrastructure within and beyond UNODC that addresses the demand for joint evaluations, system wide evaluations as well as coordination and cooperation with oversight functions.
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IES is headed by Katharina Kayser, Chief. |
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Katherine Aston: Deputy Chief of IES. Focal Point: Evaluation Norms; UNEG; Evaluation Policy; In-depth Evaluations; Evaluation during COVID-19 Crisis; Joint Evaluations; Gender Equality; Oversight and Audit. |
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Carlos Asenjo Ruiz: Focal Point: National Evaluation Capacity; Capacity Building; SDGs and UN Reforms; Independent Project Evaluations. |
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Eduardo Toscani: Focal Point: Independent Project Evaluations. |
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Emanuel Lohninger: Focal Point: Unite Evaluations; Project Oversight; Knowledge Management and Meta-Syntheses; Communication; Innovation and Technology; Oversight and Audit. |
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Moritz Schuberth: Contributing to Capacity Building; Unite Evaluations; Independent Project Evaluations; Knowledge Management and Meta-Syntheses; Innovation and Technology. |
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Charlotte Gunnarsson: Focal Point: Project Oversight; Communication; GLOH92 Reporting and Monitoring; Staff Recruitment. |
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Premmanee Saowadan: Focal Point: Budget Planning and Administration; Staff Recruitment; Time Administration; Calendar and Meetings. |
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Jelena Baier: Focal Point; Consultant Recruitment; Procurement; Administrative Support for Travel, Meetings and Events. |
IES delivers products and services in line with its three strategic pillars of mandated work:
1. Evaluation Results: UNODC's evaluations have grown more strategic over the past years. The core function of IES entails conducting participatory independent gender-responsive evaluations, reporting directly and simultaneously on evaluation results to UNODC's Executive Director and Member States. IES also disseminates and ensures access to evaluation results on UNODC's website (See Evaluation Reports). Information stemming from evaluations are further shared in different fora, including UNEG. All UNODC Evaluation Reports further undergo an external quality assessment (Quality Assessment of Independent Project and In-Depth Evaluation Reports). See also the latest Evaluation Quality Assessment Report 2019 and the 2-page Summary. Continuing with the trend from the EQA 2018, 100% of all evaluations in 2019 were rated as " Good" or " Very Good". The UN Gender SWAP Evaluation Performance Indicators were further integrated in the EQA, showing that Gender Equality "met the requirements" in all evaluations.
2. Evaluation Knowledge Management, Innovation and Communication: IES engages in extracting key results and lessons learned of independent evaluations to produce evaluation-based knowledge products (See Knowledge Products), strengthening thereby evaluation-based knowledge management and a culture of learning and accountability. This includes strategic analyses on aggregate evaluation results as well as innovative IT system and tools, such as Unite Evaluations. Unite Evaluations is an integrated, web-based evaluation management and knowledge sharing application that facilitates the tracking of evaluation recommendations and aggregation of evaluation results, as well as reporting vis-à-vis the targets of the SDGs.
3. Evaluation Capacity Building Development: The Section engages in capacity building to internal and external stakeholders. This includes providing technical support and assistance; guiding project managers and evaluators in the evaluation process; developing evaluation guidelines, templates and tools; as well as using each evaluation for on-the-job capacity building. (See Templates and Guidelines; Evaluation Step by Step and Guidance for Project Managers). In line with General Assembly's mandate (A/RES/69/237) IES further supports Member States and partners in delivering technical assistance in building national evaluation capacity. (See Capacity Development and SDGs)
The Independent Evaluation Section (IES) at UNODC was re-established in 2010 as a sustainable, effective and operationally independent evaluation function at UNODC pursuant to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) resolution 52/14 and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) resolution 18/6, reporting directly on evaluation results to the Executive Director and Member States. These founding resolutions were later followed by several additional resolutions by CND, CCPCJ and the General Assembly (including UNGA resolution A/RES/69/237 on national evaluation capacity building; UNGA resolution A/RES/72/303 on accountability systems in the UN Secretariat; and, SG reports A/70/826 and A/73/866 on a UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy), setting the mandate of IES work.
The new resolution from 2019, 62/9 (CND); 28/4 (CCPCJ), urges UNODC “to enhance its strategic planning, (…) including by conducting strategic evaluations and fully integrating their results, ensuring coherent programming, promoting synergies and avoiding duplication of effort, and to inform Member States on a regular basis about its management responses to evaluation results”. See Recent Resolutions
