The Independent Evaluation Section (IES) contributes to UNODC's accountability and evaluation-based decision-making in the response to drugs, crime and terrorism, responding to organizational needs of inputs for evidence-based programming. It does so by ensuring a wide variety of services and products, including the conduct of participatory, independent, inclusive, gender-responsive evaluations at corporate, policy, programme and project levels, reporting directly on completed independent evaluations to UNODC's Executive Director and Member States. With regard to cooperation with other evaluation functions in the UN system, IES participates in the UN Evaluation Group (UNEG), ensuring that UNODC evaluations fully meet the Norms and Standards of UNEG and are utilization-focused, using learning opportunities of evaluation results to strengthen efficiency, effectiveness and organizational accountability at UNODC. IES further closely coordinates and cooperates with Oversight Bodies to ensure complementarity of work.
See also UNODC's Evaluation Policy.
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IES is headed by Katharina Kayser, Chief. |
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Katherine Aston, Deputy Chief. Focal Point: Evaluation Norms; In-depth Evaluations; Oversight and Audit; Gender Equality. |
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Carlos Asenjo Ruiz. Focal Point: Independent Project Evaluations Latin America; National and UNODC Evaluation Capacity Development; SDGs and UN Reforms. |
Under Recruitment. Focal Point: Independent Project Evaluations. |
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Emanuel Lohninger. Focal Point: Evaluation Knowledge Management; Unite Evaluations; Innovation and Communication. |
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Moritz Schuberth. Contributing to: Evaluation Capacity Development; Independent Project Evaluations; Evaluation Knowledge Management. |
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Charlotte Gunnarsson. Focal Point: Project Oversight and GLOH92 Reporting; Communication; Staff Recruitment. |
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Premmanee Saowadan. Focal Point: Budget and Time Administration; Staff Recruitment; Calendars and Events. |
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Jelena Baier. Focal Point: Consultant Recruitment; Administrative Support for Travel and Meetings. |
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, inclusive, 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. UNODC Evaluation Reports further undergo an external quality assessment (Quality Assessment of Independent Project and In-Depth Evaluation Reports). See 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 Products, Communication and Innovation: In response to information needs, key results and lessons learned of independent evaluations are synthesized and aggregated into innovative evaluation-based knowledge products (See Knowledge Products), expanding the knowledge at UNODC for specific thematic areas. This includes Unite Evaluations and Meta-Syntheses of evaluation results. 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 Development and SDGs: The Section engages in strengthening evaluation capacity development among UNODC staff. 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 UNGA Resolution A/RES/69/237, IES further offers technical assistance to strengthen national evaluation capacities and systems. (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
