Results-based management in the ILO guides EVAL’s commitment to transparency, effectiveness and organizational learning. In 2005, the ILO established a central Evaluation Unit and revised its policy to conform to United Nations norms and standards for evaluation. Following an independent external evaluation (IEE) of ILO’s evaluation function in 2010 the policy was extended for another five years and strategy was adjusted to address some of the shortcomings identified. A general conclusion of the IEE was that ILO’s evaluation policy is generally sound but that a stronger link was required between evaluation and decision-making. A new five-year evaluation strategy will be formulated in the next biennium.

Since 2010, the Evaluation Unit has continued to build evaluation culture in the ILO and to pursue higher performance linked to its results-based evaluation strategy. The newly renamed unit, now called the Evaluation Office, routinely revises and updates its guidance, strengthens evaluation culture through the publishing of Think Pieces, training and undertaking annual meta-analyses on evaluation quality.

Annual reporting of the evaluation function at ILO:

This year's 2015-16 collection of reports includes the following:

-- Regional cluster evaluation of Decent Work Country Programmes in Europe (tba)

-- Independent evaluation of ILO’s strategy for skills development

-- Independent external evaluation of the evaluation function

-- Decent work results and effectiveness of ILO operations: A meta-analysis of project

evaluations, 2014-2015

Summaries of the country and strategy evaluations are made available as Governing Body documents with additional Quick Facts pages appearing as part of the EVAL record on this website (see right menu).

In addition to the above high-level evaluations, EVAL also produces an Annual Evaluation Report (AER). This year’s report presents the Office’s progress toward achieving its result-based evaluation strategy during 2014-15. It also provides oversight on the follow-up to recommendations for the high-level strategy or country level evaluations, as well as centralized and decentralized project evaluations. There is also a rolling work plan indicating the high-level evaluations planned for the coming biennium.

The Evaluation Office is also collaborating with the technical departments to provide inputs for the evaluability of Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG8.

Scope of Evaluation in the ILO: To learn more click here

Key elements of ILO’s evaluation policy: To learn more click here

Frequently asked questions: click here

Evaluation Manager Certification Programme

EVAL established this programme in collaboration with ILO HRD and the International Training Centre in Turin, Italy. With the aim to upgrade the quality of evaluation management and to expand the pool of qualified managers in the ILO, EVAL is training officials in evaluation management. The training requires an evaluation management practicum, and when successfully completed, the trainee receives a certificate signed by ILO senior management.

Certification for Evaluation Managers has been designed in order to help ILO staff develop competencies that will strengthen their understanding of the relevance of evaluation to project design, management, and broader organizational objectives. Core competencies were identified to provide staff with professional skills to manage evaluations in collaboration with the project management team and with the support and guidance of EVAL staff.

EVAL currently has more than 40 certified evaluation managers who have completed the training and practicum requirements successfully. ILO officials can obtain names of certified evaluation managers by sending an email to EVAL@ilo.org.

i-eval Resource Kit - ILO policy guidelines for results-based evaluation: Principles, rationale, planning and managing for evaluations (2^nd edition 2013)

This revised edition updates the resource kit and contains new supplemental guidance documents, protocols and useful checklists. The kit’s CD-Rom is available with a booklet and provides comprehensive online links to all relevant ILO authoritative documents related to evaluation. Click here to access the new policy guidelines.

A quick access “Links” document is available to provide a comprehensive list and link to all supplemental guidance, checklists, templates and tools - please click here.

Evaluation Training for ILO Tripartite Constituents - (Available in English, Spanish and French)

As part of EVAL’s ongoing commitment to capacity building for constituents we have developed new training materials for our tripartite constituents on evaluation. The primary aim of this modular training package is to increase the evaluation capacity of our ILO constituents by improving their understanding of their role in evaluation as well as their participation. The 17 modules, containing presentations, links to documents and learning activities, can be used together for broad training or in subsets for short one or two-day workshops. The material may be downloaded here for use on a PC, or a copy of the CD-rom requested from EVAL@ilo.org.

EVAL has a tri-annual newsletter that offers highlights and news on evaluation activities in ILO. Click on the link above to see our latest edition. If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter please send us an email to register your contact information at EVAL@ilo.org.