On 4 February 2026, two new centralized evaluations and the Multi-Year Costed Evaluation Plan 2026-2029, were presented to the UNFPA Executive Board, First Regular Session 2026. This includes the independent evaluation of UNFPA support to the integration of the principles of ‘leaving no one behind’ and ‘reaching the furthest behind’ 2018-2024; and the independent evaluation of the capacity of UNFPA in humanitarian action 2019–2025. Pio Smith, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director, Programme, a.i., presented the management response to the evaluations at the Executive Board.
“I am confident that these evaluations and the multi-year plan provide a robust evidence base to inform the roll out of the UNFPA Strategic Plan 2026–2029, especially as UNFPA prioritizes those furthest behind across all contexts,” remarked Joel Rehnstrom, Director a.i. of the UNFPA Independent Evaluation Office, during the Executive Board session.
Statements from Member States, notably Tunisia on behalf of the African Group, Norway and Australia welcomed the Multi-Year Costed Evaluation Plan and the two evaluations. The enhanced focus on humanitarian action was noted and appreciated.
The African Group highlighted evaluation as a key tool to enhance transparency, strengthen results-based management and ensure development cooperation delivers meaningful impact for communities, particularly the most vulnerable. The statement emphasised that evaluation must not be seen solely as a compliance or accountability tool, but rather leveraged as a strategic driver for adaptive programming, real-time learning and policy course correction, particularly in fragile and humanitarian contexts where needs evolve rapidly. Furthermore, the African Group underscored that evaluation findings should translate into operational adjustments, strengthened national systems and capacities, and targeted investments that directly improve service delivery for women, girls and vulnerable populations. Finally, they highlighted that evaluation findings must be accompanied by the necessary means of implementation.
Australia stressed the importance of interagency evaluations to bolster system-wide coordination and learning. They also encouraged continuous monitoring of the evaluation plan to ensure that the demand for evaluations remains aligned with available resources and the workforce's capacity to absorb the lessons from evaluations.
Watch the full video of the UNFPA evaluation session at the Executive Board
