The Politics of Evaluation in International Organizations

Abstract

Abstract Evaluation is a key tool for assessing the performance of international organizations (IOs) to foster learning and to demonstrate accountability. Within the United Nations (UN) system, hundreds of evaluators and consultants produce evaluation reports every year. But does evaluation deliver on its promise of objective evidence and functional use? By unravelling the internal machinery of evaluation systems, this book challenges the understanding of evaluation as a value-free activity. It shows how a seemingly neutral technocratic tool can serve as an instrument for power in global governance and explains how deeply politics are entrenched in the interests of evaluation stakeholders, the design of IO evaluation systems, and the content of evaluation reports. It draws on 120 research interviews with evaluators, member state representatives, and secretariat officials, as well as on analysis of reports themselves. Twenty-one UN system organizations are investigated, including the International Labour Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, UN Women, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Shedding light on the (in-)effectiveness of evidence-based policymaking, the authors propose options how to better reconcile the observed evaluation politics with the need to gather reliable evidence to improve the functioning of the UN. The key to evaluation politics is not to abandon evaluation or to isolate it from the stakeholders but to acknowledge surrounding political interests and design evaluation systems accordingly.