UNAIDS’ efforts to bring together national and international partners in a global response to HIV have been successful in many respects. However, HIV remains a global challenge and evaluation is a key element in defining the way forward to achieve the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

To strengthen accountability, transparency, organizational learning and change, the UNAIDS evaluation function has been strengthened through the establishment of an independent Evaluation Office as a structurally and functionally separate unit of the UNAIDS Secretariat reporting to the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB).

Additional resources have been dedicated to evaluation. Based on the range recommended by the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU/REP/2014/6), the UNAIDS PCB has established that 1% of UNAIDS’ annual expenditure is to be allocated to the evaluation function. This amount includes staff costs and the cost of evaluations as well as other activities related to the evaluation function.

Every two years, an evaluation plan is developed through a consultative process involving the Cosponsors, the Secretariat and an expert advisory committee on evaluation before being presented to the PCB for approval. The plan includes evaluations to be carried out and activities to strengthen the evaluation culture, stakeholder engagement, professionalization of evaluation and interagency collaboration. An annual progress report on evaluation is presented to the PCB and a semi-annual update is presented to the PCB Bureau.

The scope of the evaluations carried out by the UNAIDS Evaluation Office includes the HIV-related activities of all 11 Cosponsors and the UNAIDS Secretariat, which are carried out together with the evaluation offices of the Cosponsors, as well as UNAIDS Secretariat-specific evaluations. A priority of the UNAIDS Evaluation Office is to promote system-wide and joint evaluations of the response to HIV as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.