Our mission

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a functionally independent entity dedicated to enhancing accountability and learning within the organization. Operating under the UNDP Evaluation Policy, the IEO ensures impartial assessments of UNDP’s work, providing actionable insights to strengthen its contribution to development results globally.

Our mandate

The IEO’s primary mandate is to conduct independent evaluations as outlined in the Multi-Year Evaluation Plan approved by the Executive Board. Key responsibilities include:

• Conducting strategic evaluations that encompass thematic, programmatic, and country-specific work.
• Offering knowledge and lessons learned to inform UNDP programming and policymaking.
• Developing and innovating evaluation standards, methodologies and guidance.
• Assessing the quality of decentralized evaluations and ensuring compliance with international evaluation standards, including those of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG).
• Promoting national ownership in evaluation processes and collaborating with global partners to harmonize evaluation practices.

Independence and authority

The IEO operates with full structural and functional independence. This underpins and guarantees its freedom to conduct evaluations and report evaluation results to the Executive Board. The IEO has unrestricted access to all UNDP records and stakeholders necessary for its work, and its Director reports directly to the UNDP Executive Board.

Guiding frameworks

IEO is managed in accordance with UNDP policies and procedures and the norms and standards set by UNEG, the United Nations Evaluation Group. UNEG is an interagency professional network bringing together the evaluation units of the UN system. It provides a forum for professional engagement, develops and safeguards professional norms, standards and guidance, and advocates for the strategic use of evaluations in all UN entities.