ILO Evaluation Trust Fund (IETF)

Effective evaluation is particularly important for strengthening organizational learning and improving the effectiveness of future programming. By conducting impact evaluations and ex-post evaluations of development cooperation projects/programmes, the ILO can learn from its past experiences and apply these insights to future programming. Moreover, these evaluations can provide evidence of the impact of a programme or project on beneficiaries, which can be used to justify further investment in similar programmes or projects. This can be particularly important for demonstrating to development partners, ILO constituents, and stakeholders that resources entrusted to the ILO were used effectively and for improving the effectiveness and sustainability of development interventions. The ILO evaluation policy currently requires that on average 2% of development cooperation budgets be dedicated to evaluation purposes. This policy is essential as it has allowed the ILO to ensure proper evaluation coverage, leading to organizational accountability and learning. While this principle will remain untouched, the limitation is that these resources are tied to the project budgets and typically expire once the project concludes, unless alternative arrangements have been agreed upon by the funding partners. This limits the ability of the ILO to conduct impact-focused ex-post evaluations of these development cooperation activities, which often require some time before impact can materialize and become measurable. As a result, there is a need for an additional flexible funding modality as laid out in the 2017 Evaluation Policy and Results-based evaluation strategy 2023-2025 that can support , ex-post, and impact evaluations of development cooperation activities that cannot be accommodated within project timelines. Additionally, as stated in the ILO’s evaluation policy, the organization has adopted the clustering of evaluations as the most effective and efficient manner to conduct evaluations (ILO evaluation policy, 2017). The policy requires “the clustering of evaluations of project and programme activities under identical or similar themes, programme frameworks and locations, provided that funding agreements, timing, specific focus and the nature of activities allow it.” The voluntary pooling of extra-budgetary evaluation funds can facilitate this process. To promote organizational learning and fine-tuning project/programmes interventions for greater impact, the ILO will therefore establish an ILO Evaluation Trust Fund (IETF), dedicated to supporting evaluation of extra-budgetary development cooperation activities that require a longer-term timeframe.

Project symbol

GLO/23/29/ETF

Admin unit

EVAL

Start date

20/10/2023

End date

31/12/2029

Total allocation

49235

Total expenditure

Status

Active

17176

Development Partners

ILO EVALUATION TRUST FUND (IETF)

Country/Countries

Global

Outcomes

Output B.3. Strengthened oversight, evaluation and risk management to ensure transparency, accountability and learning