4.4.5 Draft report and review process

Debriefings with key stakeholders and the evaluation reference group may also be organized. This gives an opportunity to discuss the preliminary findings and address any factual errors or misunderstandings, prior to writing the evaluation report.

4.4.5 Draft report and review process

The evaluation manager is ultimately responsible for the quality of the evaluation and should plan to review the relevance and accuracy of any reports, and their compliance with the TOR. The evaluation manager needs to share the UNDP evaluation report template with the evaluation team leader and inform them about the UNDP evaluation quality assurance system. Where the template has been shared earlier in the evaluation process, it is recommended to remind the evaluation team leader to adhere to the template. Once the first draft of the evaluation report has been submitted, the evaluation manager and evaluation reference group should assure the quality of the report and provide comments. The evaluation report should be logically structured, contain evidence-based findings, conclusions, lessons and recommendations, and be presented in a way that makes the information accessible and comprehensible. A quality evaluation report should: ▪ Have a concise executive summary (maximum four pages). ▪ Be well structured and complete. ▪ Describe sufficiently what exactly is being evaluated and why. ▪ Include an analysis of the project design, theory of change or results framework. ▪ Identify the evaluation questions of concern to users. ▪ Explain the steps and procedures used to answer those questions. ▪ Acknowledge limitations and constraints in undertaking the evaluation. ▪ Identify target groups covered by the evaluation, whether or not the needs of the target groups were addressed through the intervention, and why. ▪ Address gender equality and women’s empowerment, disability and other cross-cutting issues. ▪ Present findings supported by credible evidence in response to the questions. ▪ Draw conclusions about the findings based on the evidence. ▪ Propose concrete and usable recommendations derived from the conclusions. ▪ Be written with the report users and how they will use the evaluation in mind.

Standard outline for an evaluation report

Annex 1 provides further information on the standard outline for the evaluation report. In brief, the minimum contents of an evaluation report include: 1. Title and opening pages with details of the project/ programme/ outcome being evaluated and the evaluation team. 2. Project and evaluation details, including the project title, Atlas number, budgets and project dates and other key information.

3. Table of contents. 4. List of acronyms and abbreviations.

5. Executive summary, a stand-alone section of maximum four pages including the quality standards and assurance ratings. 6. Introduction and overview, explaining what is being evaluated and why. 7. Description of the intervention being evaluated, providing the basis for readers to understand the design, general logic, results framework (theory of change) and other relevant information of the initiative being evaluated.