Meta-evaluation: Validating program evaluation standards through the United Nations Evaluation Quality Assessment (EQAs)

Abstract

The 2015 United Nation’s ‘Eval Year’ declaration heightened program evaluation’s significance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. However, uncertainties persist regarding evaluating high-quality evaluations and addressing social justice concerns in meta-evaluations. The field lacks consensus on both conducting meta-evaluation and the standards to use. To address this, we reviewed meta-evaluation literature, mapped the American Evaluation Association’s foundational documents with the United Nations Evaluation Group’s Norms and Standards to explore their intersectionality on social justice, and analysed 62 United Nations Population Fund evaluation reports alongside their management responses. Our findings indicate that addressing social justice concerns in meta-evaluation is contingent on context rather than established standards. Thus, it’s crucial for evaluators to prioritise social justice in evaluation design and implementation, and to select quality assurance tools that match the evaluation context and professional association guidelines, especially in the absence of standardised guidelines.