UN Women country portfolio evaluations: Revised guidelines

The country portfolio evaluation (CPE) represents a key source of evaluative knowledge that generates independent, robust, and contextually relevant evidence of UN Women’s contribution to development effectiveness with respect to gender equality and the empowerment of women at the country level.

In the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and United Nations reform, the new generation of the UN Development Assistance Framework—the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework—includes leaving no one behind, human rights, and gender equality and the empowerment of women as core programming principles at the country level. CPEs provide an opportunity to fully leverage these principles to generate meaningful and robust evidence to strengthen the gender equality and empowerment of women agenda and enhance UN Women’s relevance, coherence, institutional efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability in support of SDG implementation and the UN Women Strategic Plan 2022–2025. This publication is an updated version of the “Guidance on country portfolio evaluations in UN Women” (2016) and has been developed following a wide consultative process with UN Women Independent Evaluation and Audit Services and other stakeholders. 

The guide is intended for use during all stages of a CPE, providing a framework for planning and managing CPEs, along with practical guidance and methodological rigor for the assessment of Strategic Notes. The guidance is arranged according to the five stages of evaluation in UN Women.