Synthesis Review 2020: Drawing on Evaluations and Evaluative Exercises of Initiatives Supported by the Fund

At the end of the 2017-2019 Strategic Plan, the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) commissioned a Synthesis Review of approximately sixty evaluative exercises conducted at both portfolio as well as project levels during that period. The Synthesis Review report analyzed a range of findings emerging from the evaluative exercises, combined with recommendations for PBF and the wider UN system. In the Strategic Plan 2020-2024, the Fund committed to conduct Synthesis Reviews on an annual basis. This report represents a review of the 2020 evaluative exercises. The 2020 Synthesis Review includes the review of one portfolio evaluation, three evaluability assessments, one Strategic Review, one Thematic Review on transitional justice, one evaluative exercise, and twenty-four project evaluations. The 2020 review examines those exercises, documents steps that PBF has taken in 2020 to follow-up on the recommendations outlined in the 2017-2019 review, and highlights the new evaluative approaches PBF experimented with in 2020 in light of the travel restrictions due to Covid-19 and other relevant developments at the PBF.