UNCDF has launched the Evaluation of its 2018-2021 Strategic Framework and of its Gender Policy and Strategy. The evaluation will strengthen UNCDF’s accountability to its key development partners, enable organizational learning, and support the development of the 2022–2025 Strategic Framework.

It will also look closely at UNCDF’s performance against the gender strategy embedded into its Strategic Framework, and fulfill the evaluation performance requirements under the UN System-wide Action Plan (UN-SWAP 2.0) on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Co-financed by UNDP's Independent Evaluation Office, the evaluation is designed and managed by UNCDF Evaluation Unit and will be conducted by a team of independent experts from Baastel and International Financial Consulting.

UNCDF´s 2018-2021 Strategic Framework

The 2018-2021 Strategic Framework sets out a series of objectives and key expected results for UNCDF´s work in support of two overarching development outcomes that articulate its ambition to unlock public and private finance for the poor and to support enhanced inclusive financial markets and local development finance systems that benefit poor and vulnerable populations in the LDCs.

The Framework is operationalized into a set of gender-responsive expected development and institutional results and indicators via the broader Integrated Results and Resources Matrix (IRRM), which is then further operationalized into a portfolio of programmes and projects across UNCDF’s programmatic divisions: the Financial Inclusion Practice Area (FIPA); the Local Development Finance Practice Area (LDFPA); which are supported in channeling finance to UNCDF partners by the Least Developed Countries Investment Platform (LDCIP).

Details of the evaluation

The evaluation will be transparent, inclusive, participatory and utilisation-focused. The overall methodology will be organized following a theory-based approach reflecting UNCDF’s theory of change. The team will draw upon a number of mixed methods to answer the evaluation questions framed by the UN/OECD DAC evaluation criteria.

The evaluation will provide UNCDF and key development partners, including the Executive Board, with evaluative evidence on the performance of UNCDF against the objectives and expected results of its Strategic Framework 2018–2021. It will do so by assessing the relevance, coherence, efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of UNCDF’s organizational and programmatic results under its Strategic Framework 2018–2021, and in line with the objectives of UNCDF’s gender strategy.

The evaluation is also intended to assess UNCDF’s organizational and programmatic performance in promoting gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in the countries where UNCDF operates. This will cover the UN-SWAP 2.0 requirements for UN entities to commission periodic evaluations of their gender policies and strategies.