GEF Monitoring and Evaluation Policy (2019)

Overview

In May 2014, the GEF Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) recommended an update to the GEF Monitoring and Evaluation Policy to the GEF Council, to ensure its continued relevance in the context of the evolution of the GEF partnership since 2010. In October 2015, the IEO analyzed all GEF Council decisions taken since the last M&E Policy was issued in 2010. This analysis identified several gaps in the 2010 Policy including gender and safeguard standards, and program level evaluation, among others.

Based on international good practice standards among organizations including global partnerships and multilateral development banks, the 2010 M&E Policy has been split into two separate policies, one addressing monitoring, and the other evaluation. An Evaluation Policy defines the core principles, criteria, and the governance structure (key roles and responsibilities) of an organization’s evaluation function. The monitoring and reporting function is an integral part of an organization’s operations, which is consistent with its project cycle, and defines clear roles, responsibilities, and milestones on the provision of information and data for reporting.

The main updates to the GEF Evaluation Policy include:

• Introducing the principle that evaluation in the GEF should apply a gender-responsive approach
• Introducing the requirement that terminal evaluations of GEF projects and programs should report on the GEF’s additionality using the evaluative approach provided by the GEF IEO 3
• Introducing the requirement that program evaluation should assess the coherence between program and child project theories of change, indicators, and expected/achieved results
• Establishing the principle that program evaluation should measure and demonstrate program value added over the same level of investment made through comparable alternatives
• Clarifying evaluation responsibilities for jointly implemented projects
• Introducing a requirement to collect (1) socio-economic co-benefits data, (2) sex-disaggregated and gender sensitive data, and (3) geographic coordinates of project sites whenever available/possible

The original GEF M&E Policy 2010 was approved in November 2010. 

Document Details