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For the first time in the history of the United Nations - a landmark, stand-alone United Nations General Assembly Resolution, titled "Capacity building for the evaluation of development activities at the country level" has been approved through general consensus and cross-regional support of forty-two countries, during the UN General Assembly Second Committee meeting of 13 November 2014 and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in the plenary session of 19 December 2014.

UNGA Resolution A/RES/69/237 "Capacity building for the evaluation of development activities at the country level"

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The resolution emphasizes the importance of building capacities for the evaluation of development activities at country level. The value added of this resolution is that it changes the business-as-usual approach. It allows for interaction and cooperation amongst all the relevant partners, including those of the UN System, the national and international stakeholders, to coordinate efforts to further strengthen the Member States capacities for evaluation. Most importantly, the resolution emphasizes that national ownership and national priorities form a strong base for building national capacities to manage and oversee evaluations.

Through this resolution, Member States agree that evaluation is an important component of development processes, and recognize evaluation as a country level tool that can help strengthen and support development results. As Deborah Rugg, Chair of UNEG said in an interview discussing the UN Resolution on Evaluation, "This resolution was much needed because it elevates and highlights the need for better evaluation capacity for achieving better development results, especially at country level."

Furthermore, this is the first time a UN resolution acknowledges that the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) has endorsed 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation (initially declared by EvalPartners under the leadership of UN Women and IOCE) and builds on this momentum to foster capacity building and enhance partnerships for evaluation at the country level. 

It is also significant to note that as an indication of how important sponsoring Member States felt the resolution was, they requested that the UN Secretary-General provide an update in 2016 on the progress made in building national evaluation capacities. This report will be considered during the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development (QCPR) of the United Nations system in 2016.

As Ambassador Thomson of the Mission of Fiji to the UN said while presenting this resolution to the UN Second Committee, "we know that building capacities takes time, so this resolution is aimed at countries like my own being able to attain the necessary skills to evaluate programmes and policies in the years ahead." Through implementation of this resolution, countries will strengthen their national capacities to be prepared to start implementing the new sustainable development agenda in 2016.

In this regard, UNEG looks forward to working together with all partners to enhance national evaluation capacities during the 2015 International Year of Evaluation and beyond. Evaluation will play a greater role and help to achieve better development results for the World We Want in 2015 and beyond!! 

ANNEXES

Annex1. List of countries co-sponsors of the resolution

The Mission of Fiji to the UN with the technical support from UNEG, initiated and presented the resolution to the Second Committee on behalf of Mexico, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Samoa and Vanuatu.

On 13 November the following countries joined as co-sponsors: Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Ireland, Italy, Kiribati, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tonga, Turkmenistan and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, France, Guinea, Serbia and Ukraine.

Annex 2. List of links (and embedded codes) to use when posting the above note in the UNEG members' and partners' websites

Link 1: Resolution Documents

1) Link to the UNGA Second Committee- document A/C.2/69/L.35:

http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/C.2/69/L.35

2) Link of the Official Documentation Services (ODS) to see access the official document A/RES/69/237:

http://documents.un.org/mother.asp

Link 2: Video of the Second Committee (13 November 2014)

Embed code: <iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" scrolling="no" src="https://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1722935254001/?bctid=3930893165001&autoStart=false&secureConnections=true&width=480&height=270" ></iframe>

Link: http://webtv.un.org/search/unga-resolution-%E2%80%9Ccapacity-building-for-evaluation-of-development-activities-at-the-country-level%E2%80%9D-second-committee/3930893165001?term=2014-11-13

Link 3: Video of the UNGA plenary session (19 December 2014)

Embed code: <iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" scrolling="no" src="https://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1722935254001/?bctid=3987093692001&autoStart=false&secureConnections=true&width=480&height=270" ></iframe>

Link: http://webtv.un.org/search/unga-resolution-%E2%80%9Ccapacity-building-for-evaluation-of-development-activities-at-the-country-level%E2%80%9D/3987093692001?term=2014-12-19

Link 4: Video of Ms. Deborah Rugg, UNEG Chair discussing the UN Resolution on Evaluation

Embed Code: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2bdTGwcBgOY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bdTGwcBgOY

Link 5: EvalPartners website

http://www.mymande.org/evalyear

 

Annex 3. Additional information from UNEG and Partners

See on UNEG website an information note on the lighting of the evaluation torch event: (http://www.uneval.org/mediacenter/newscenter/newsdetail/104)

See a video of Mr. Marco Segone, UNEG Vice-Chair discussing the 2015 International Year of Evaluation and other activities.

Embed Code: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3_653hxUILY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_653hxUILY

See what partners are saying on the new resolution

Mission of Fiji to the UN - http://www.fijiprun.org/node/192

Fiji Newspaper - http://thejetnewspaper.com/2014/12/22/fiji-action-at-united-nations-for-enhanced-evaluation/

NEC Community of Practice - https://www.unteamworks.org/node/470954

EvalPartners - http://www.mymande.org/evalyear 

- http://mymande.org/evalyear/evaluationtorch2015

- http://evalpartners.cmail1.com/t/ViewEmail/d/0F7794CB37DEFE46

Australasian Evaluation Society Inc. - http://www.aes.asn.au/98-public/general/668-evalyear-2015.html

American Evaluation Association - http://www.eval.org/blog/aea-newsletter-january-2015?source=1

UN Women - http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/02/timely-and-gender-responsive-evaluations-in-2015