Institution Background
Peacekeeping is one of the United Nations' tools to help countries navigate the challenging journey from conflict to peace. Peacekeeping operations receive their mandates from
the UN Security Council, with troops and police contributed by Member States. They are managed by the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) and supported by the Department of Operational Support (DOS) at UN Headquarters in New York.
Today's multidimensional peacekeeping operations aim not only to maintain peace and security but also to facilitate political processes, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of former combatants, support constitutional processes and the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights, and help restore the rule of law and extend legitimate state authority.
Evaluation Function
In 2008, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and the Department of Field Support (DFS) established an Evaluation team in response to OIOS audit recommendations (A/61/743 of 14 February 2007). This initiative enabled DPKO/DFS to meet the organization-wide requirements for evaluation outlined in the Secretary-General's bulletin entitled
"Regulations and Rules Governing Programme Planning, the Programme Aspects of the Budget, the Monitoring of Implementation and the Methods of Evaluation" (ST/SGB/2000/8).
Following UN reforms launched in 2019, the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) no longer shares its evaluation function with the Department of Operational Support (DOS). New guidance was issued by the Secretary-General (ST/SGB/2018/3 and ST/AI/2021/3) for evaluation functions in the UN Secretariat entities. DPO has subsequently updated its Evaluation Policy to focus on programme (subprogramme) evaluations and evaluations of cross-cutting themes or any topic of strategic importance to senior management. The policy has been submitted for approval.
The Evaluation Team leads evaluation work planning and conducts evaluations using a combination of staff and consultancy resources. It also assists the Department in building capacities across divisions for managing and conducting evaluations.
