Evaluation synthesis: UN Women’s performance against the 2022–2025 Strategic Plan

At the end of the Strategic Plan 2022–2025 period, the Independent Evaluation Service saw an opportunity to examine UN Women’s performance against the Strategic Plan through a synthesis of evaluative evidence. The synthesis focused on the plan’s medium-term systemic outcomes, which were designed as cross-cutting levers to address the root causes of gender inequality.

Overall, 175 evaluations were synthesized to assess evaluation coverage of the systemic outcomes, the extent to which the systemic outcomes have contributed to thematic impact areas, and the effectiveness of UN Women’s implementation of its triple mandate. The report presents findings for each systemic outcome, covering contributions to each impact area, enabling and hindering factors, and key insights.

Overall, the synthesis found the conceptualization of the systemic outcomes to be coherent; however, clearer organizational plans could support their implementation across impact areas. At times, organizational governance structures were at odds with the integrated nature of the systemic outcomes. Harmful social norms were frequently cited as a major impediment across systemic outcomes. Finally, there is opportunity for capacity strengthening work to be more meaningfully integrated following a common organization-wide framework.

Regarding UN Women’s triple mandate, evaluations found UN Women’s normative work was a clear area of strength. UN Women’s coordination work has been effective at driving gender equality across the UN system; however, clearer articulation of this work and robust measurement could strengthen impact.

The synthesis presents 10 considerations, intended to support the development of the Strategic Plan 2026–2029 and UN Women’s programming more broadly.