Drawing on about 300 United Nations evaluations and employing a responsible AI-enabled methodology, this evidence synthesis report provides validated lessons on what works and what doesn't in advancing youth education and employment programmes. These lessons directly contribute to the implementation of the United Nations Youth Strategy 2030.

The lessons emphasize the need for targeted interventions and tailored approaches for specific disadvantaged youth groups, the importance of cross-sector collaboration and holistic approaches to enhance youth employability and personal development, the necessity of tailoring educational programmes to local and cultural realities, and the value of a balanced approach combining direct youth support and upstream strategies for long-term success. By applying these lessons to programme design, budget allocation and advocacy, programmers and decision-makers can ensure young people are better prepared for the future of work and learning.

The report is a result of an inter-agency knowledge collaboration, co-led by the UNFPA Independent Evaluation Office and UNICEF Evaluation Office, along with the EvalYouth Global Network, Generation Unlimited, Global Partnership for Education Youth Leaders, ILO, IOM, OHCHR, UNDP, UNESCO, and the United Nations Youth Office. The report was officially launched at a Youth ECOSOC Forum side event on 15 April 2025. 

This is the third report, part of a series of four meta-synthesis exercises on lessons learned in the implementation of the United Nations Youth Strategy. The first synthesis focused on ‘What works to amplify the rights and voices of youth?’ by exploring youth participation and youth and human rights. The second synthesis focused on ‘What works to amplify the rights and voices of youth in peace and resilience building?’. Together this evidence package aims at strengthening the United Nations effectiveness on youth programming globally.

UNFPA has a bold vision: a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The UNFPA Strategic Plan 2022-2025 is a crucial stepping stone towards this vision, focusing on three transformative results: ending preventable maternal deaths, ending unmet need for family planning, and ending gender-based violence and harmful practices. This plan is the second in a series of three strategic plans until 2030, each building on the last to accelerate progress towards the three transformative results.

This independent evaluation assesses the organizational readiness and strategic positioning of UNFPA to accelerate progress towards the achievement of the three transformative results, and provides evidence and insights for the development of the next UNFPA Strategic Plan 2026-2029. In particular, the evaluation examines two key innovations: six accelerators designed to drive faster results, and twelve strategic shifts that represent UNFPA's commitment to adapt and evolve its approach, to support the implementation of the strategic plan.

The evaluation concludes that while successive strategic plans aiming for the three transformative results provide continuity and focus, they require adaptability, with acceleration remaining relevant yet potentially insufficient for countries facing setbacks. The evaluation recommends to focus the next strategic plan on further acceleration - rather than unfinished business - and ensuring that efforts to protect the ICPD agenda are fully integrated into the approach.

While the three transformative results effectively focused UNFPA resources on key priorities, they do not fully encompass all stakeholder needs or the organization’s broader contributions to the ICPD Programme of Action and the Sustainable Development Goals. The next strategic plan should clarify the UNFPA strategic positioning in population dynamics and other key areas of work (such as HIV, gender equality, youth and adolescence and ageing) and the direct contribution of these areas to the SDGs and ICPD Programme of Action.

The shifts in the Strategic Plan 2022-2025 demanded substantial organizational effort, with clearer guidance, and needed to consider internal capacity constraints, especially in smaller country offices. The evaluation recommends operationalizing acceleration by clarifying and strengthening linkages between concepts and programming approaches well in advance of the launch of the new strategic plan.

A clearer approach to acceleration in the next strategic plan, and the country programmes, is needed in order to enhance coherence across UNFPA initiatives, align modes of engagement and guide human resource priorities at the country level. The evaluation recommends strengthening capacities to undertake the critical measures that will support acceleration, especially in normative work, funding to finance, knowledge management and strategic communications.

Finally, UNFPA has improved its humanitarian response capacity but needs clearer guidance and strategic integration to coordinate and implement resilience, humanitarian, development and peace efforts within resource constraints. The evaluation recommends better integration of humanitarian, development and peace-responsive interventions while taking into account the different and changing contexts within which UNFPA works.
 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Group System-Wide Evaluation Office (SWEO), in collaboration with the Independent Evaluation Offices of IFAD, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNDP, UNICEF and WFP has produced evaluation evidence summaries and maps to inform the upcoming 2024 Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR). This review, conducted every four years, allows Member States to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of United Nations development activities.

In 2024, the SWEO launched a cross-system initiative to gather and analyze evidence from nearly 1000 United Nations evaluations conducted between 2021 and 2024. This has resulted in interactive digital maps and five evidence summaries linking to the priorities of 2020 QCPR, such as building a whole of system response to complex settings; the independent resident coordinator system; United Nations development system reform at the regional level; quality funding; and sustainable food systems.

The summaries offer evidence and lessons learned for Member States involved in the 2024 QCPR negotiations. The initiative also aims to optimize the use of evaluation evidence in the United Nations and identify evidence gaps. 

The UNFPA Independent Evaluation Office actively supported and contributed to this initiative alongside the evaluation offices of UNDP and the World Food Programme, participating in the management group and peer review teams. UNFPA evaluations analyzed include the formative evaluation of the organizational resilience of UNFPA in light of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic (2024), the formative evaluation of the UNFPA engagement in the reform of the United Nations development system (2023), and the joint evaluation of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation: Accelerating Change, Phase II (2021).

These evidence summaries, along with accompanying briefs and evidence gap maps, are essential resources for stakeholders striving to strengthen United Nations development work and advance progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Evaluation map by: 
Coverage of 2020 QCPR priorities (detailed evidence map)
Coverage of SDGs
Coverage of country/territory and region (forthcoming)