The 2017 UNEG Evaluation Week was successfully held from 15 to 19 May in Vienna, Austria and was hosted by 4 Vienna-based UNEG member agencies: CTBTO, IAEA, UNIDO and UNODC. 140 colleagues from 49 UNEG member and observer agencies and additional partner organizations participated in the Evaluation Practice Exchange (EPE) and the Annual General Meeting (AGM). Over 150 people including UNEG colleagues, UN system colleagues in Vienna and UN missions attended the High-Level Event on Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing World.

Watch the Video to find out more about the 2017 UNEG Evaluation Week!

Dear colleagues,

We have had an excellent and well-attended UNEG Evaluation Week with a very good and insightful exchanges on progress and on ideas for the way forward. In this message, you will find relevant highlights and products from the event. I would also like to take this opportunity to provide some updates since our meeting in Vienna.

As you may have seen, the AGM report has already been shared for review by UNEG Heads, where you will find the activities and priorities of the various working/interest groups. A call for membership has launched and I would like to reiterate that if we want UNEG to serve as a catalyst for strengthening the evaluation function, we would collectively need to invest in UNEG. Bearing this in mind, I look forward to your commitment and support to any group.

As we embark on a Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the 2014-2019 UNEG strategy, the MTR process has officially started. The vacancy announcement will soon be shared by the UNEG Secretariat and I would like to request UNEG members to help disseminate widely to various networks. I will also be in touch with the 6 agencies that will serve as the Management Group for the MTR. Their role will be critical for managing the assessment process and helping us identify priority areas for the next UNEG strategy.

In terms of outreach the UNEG Secretariat’s social media kit productively targeted key audiences. The multi-agency efforts that took part online generated over 300 tweets and over 100,000 impressions resulting in increased visibility for UNEG.

To gather insights from the participants, a survey has also been shared and feedback from the survey will help us immensely in planning the 2018 Evaluation Week in Rome.

Lastly, an upcoming UNEG initiative will be the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) side event on evaluation in New York on 12th July which is yet to be confirmed and more information on this will follow.

Let me close by thanking the UNEG Secretariat and the Vienna-based agencies for superbly organizing the 2017 Evaluation Week. I look forward to our collaborations.

Susanne Frueh
UNEG Chair

One of the key features of the Evaluation Week was the ‘High-Level Event,’ where prominent development thinkers and practitioners were invited to discuss and directly engage UNEG members on issues of critical importance to today’s development agenda. The High-Level Event at the 2017 Evaluation Week focused on Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing World.

The participants presented and discussed their own unique experiences and practices in the relevant subject areas, including the critical role of evaluation and monitoring in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The key questions discussed included the following:
* What is the role of evaluation in achieving SDGs? What are some of the key opportunities, challenges, good practices and lessons learned?
* How do we ensure that the SDGs are properly reviewed/ evaluated in each country, engaging all relevant stakeholders?

Welcome remarks were provided by Lassina Zerbo (Executive Secretary, CTBTO), Dazhu Yang (Deputy-Director General, IAEA), Peter Thomson (President of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly & Permanent Representative of Fiji to the UN) and Marco Segone (former UNEG Chair & Director, UN Women Independent Evaluation Office).

Panelists included David Muchoki Kanja (Assistant Secretary-General, Office of Internal Oversight Services, UN), Natalia Nikitenko (Member of Parliament, Kyrgyzstan & Global Parliamentarian Forum for Evaluation), Per Øyvind Bastøe (Director of Evaluation, NORAD & Chair of OECD/DAC Evaluation Network) and Ziad Moussa (President, IOCE & Co-Chair of EvalPartners).

The UNEG Annual General Meeting, held from 17 to 19 May 2017, was a platform in which representatives of UNEG member agencies reviewed progress and results of the 2016-2017 Work Programme and decided on strategies and work areas for the following year.

The draft AGM report has been shared with UNEG heads for their review. As endorsed at the AGM UNEG will be undergoing a Mid-Term Review which has now been advertised. UNEG will continue to work on and create greater synergies between the four Strategic Objectives included in the UNEG Work Plan and a call for membership has been sent. The 2017-2018 Work Plan is currently in works and will be shared once available.

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