Peer Review of the Evaluation Function at the World Food Programme

Background to the Peer Review
1. The first Development Assistance Committee/United Nations Evaluation Group (DAC/UNEG) peer review of the evaluation function at WFP was conducted in 2007. The Executive Director of WFP agreed that a second peer review should take place in 2013–2014, following the standards agreed by the Joint DAC/UNEG Task Force on Peer Reviews.
2. The review’s core assessment question was: Are WFP’s evaluation policy, function and products independent, credible and useful for learning and accountability purposes, as assessed by a panel of professional evaluation peers against United Nations Norms and Standards for Evaluation (2005) and the evidence base? A peer review provides an opportunity for evaluation peers to learn from each other, to exchange experience on good practice in evaluation, especially across the United Nations system, and to consider together how the evaluation function of the organization reviewed can be enhanced. This is the constructive spirit in which the panel offers its findings and recommendations.
3. The Executive Director requested an extended review period to allow the panel to consider the evolving organizational changes in WFP. The panel therefore made two visits to WFP Headquarters in Rome in May 2013 and January 2014. The Chair of the panel will present its final report at the Annual Consultation on Evaluation in May 2014, and the Board will consider the management response to the report at its 2014 Second Regular Session.