At the #Eval4Action Commitment Drive, UNFPA and UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth commit to action for influential evaluation

The Eval4Actioncampaign held a digitalCommitment Drive from 19 to 23 October 2020, to generate institutional and individual commitments to action for influential evaluation in order to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With this global call to commitments, the campaign is seeking to strengthen national and regional advocacy for evaluation capacities and policies, that in turn will accelerate the pace toward achieving the SDGs by 2030. Eval4Action is co-led by the UNFPA Evaluation Office, EvalYouth Global Network and the Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation.

During the Commitment Drive, a diverse group of stakeholders - parliamentarians, governments, the UN, evaluation associations and networks, private sector, academia, young people and individual evaluators - made more than 120 commitments to action for influential evaluation. All the commitments can be viewed here .

At UNPFA, Dr. Natalia Kanem (UNFPA Executive Director), Diene Keita (UNFPA Deputy Executive Director, Programme), Ib Petersen (UNFPA Deputy Executive Director, Management), Marco Segone (Director, UNFPA Evaluation Office) and the UNFPA Evaluation Office committed to action for influential evaluation.

The United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, Jayathma Wickramanayake also reaffirmed her office's commitment to working with governments, civil society and international organizations, to make accountability processes more inclusive of young people in all their diversity, in line with the Youth 2030 Strategy.

Evidence provided by evaluation is crucial to advance the Nairobi Commitments and accelerate the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, and in turn the Decade of Action. UNFPA therefore reaffirmed its commitment to an influential evaluation function that can help rebuild stronger; deliver transformative results on the ground, and in the lives of women and girls everywhere. UNFPA also recommitted to using evaluation to strengthen the culture of results and accountability, to be more effective, efficient, transparent and inclusive to reach those still left behind. The organization also recommitted to using evaluation in decision-making, programming and for stronger adaptive management and organizational learning.

UNFPA Evaluation Office recommitted to producing independent and credible evaluations, undertaking joint and system-wide evaluations, strengthening national evaluation systems and capacities, and creating opportunities for young and emerging evaluators.

While the Commitment Drive has concluded, the call for institutional and/or individual commitment to action for influential evaluation is still open. Details on how to make and post a commitment video on Twitter are available here. For further information, reach out to contact@eval4action.org.

Visit eval4action.org to join the campaign