Box 1: Role of the M&E focal point, specialist or officer

Evaluation commissioner: in the context of these Guidelines, the evaluation commissioner is the agency or entity that calls for the evaluation to be conducted, in this case UNDP, and within UNDP, the senior manager that “owns” the evaluation plan under which the decentralized evaluation is being carried out. The evaluation commissioner, for example the resident representative for a country office, appoints the evaluation manager and approves the final terms of reference (TOR).

Programme/ project manager: This is the manager responsible for the programme, outcome, portfolio or project under evaluation (the “evaluand”). 1 The programme/ project manager should take a supporting role in the implementation of the evaluation but, in order to ensure independence and credibility, will not manage the evaluation. They will provide documents and data as requested, support the overall evaluation and evaluation manager, and have a clear plan for using the results of the evaluation.

Evaluation manager: Evaluation management should be separate from programme/ project management. Where the UNDP implementing office has a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialist or focal point, they should take the evaluation management role. Where there is no such position, an evaluation manager should be assigned by senior management (e.g. the resident representative).

The evaluation manager can recommend final sign-off and approval of all aspects of the evaluation process including: (a) ensuring evaluability; (b) the evaluation TOR; (c) the evaluation team structure and recruitment; (d) the inception report; (e) coordinating comments on the draft evaluation report; and (f) the final evaluation report.

For a joint evaluation, there may be a co-commissioner and co-manager from the partner agency. The evaluation management structure, roles and responsibilities should be agreed prior to the evaluability stage of the evaluation process.

Box 1: Role of the M&E focal point, specialist or officer

Whether or not the M&E focal point/ specialist/ officer is the evaluation manager, they should still ensure the quality of all evaluations - outcome, project, vertical-funded projects (Global Environment Facility [GEF] and Green Climate Fund [GCF]), donor project evaluations, etc.

The M&E focal point/ specialist/ officer should approve each stage before moving to the next, including:

▪ Developing and reviewing the evaluation TOR, ensuring that they meet UNDP guidance requirements; ▪ Reviewing and approving the evaluation inception report, ensuring that it meets UNDP requirements; ▪ Reviewing and recommending acceptance of the draft and final evaluation reports; and ▪ Reviewing the management responses and key actions.

In addition, the M&E focal point or specialist maintains the programme unit evaluation plan on the Evaluation Resource Center (ERC), including:

▪ Uploading the evaluation plan and updating as required; ▪ Managing changes to the evaluation plan and getting approval from the regional evaluation focal point; ▪ Uploading evaluation documents (TOR, evaluation reports etc.) to the ERC within the timelines outlined;

1 Typically, this includes senior management for country programme evaluations, global programme managers for global programme evaluations, outcome leads for outcome evaluations and/or programme officers (programme team leaders, programme analysts) for project evaluations.