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UNICEF Regional Office: a new partnership to evaluate progress for children

Young people help to monitor progress for children in Azerbaijan

News Note:

Geneva, 29 November 2005: The UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States decided to accept the invitation to joined the Board of Trustees of the International Program Evaluation Network (CIS).

Explaining the importance of this new role, Marco Segone, Regional Adviser on Monitoring and Evaluation said: "The development of national, sustainable evaluation functions is essential for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Professional evaluation organizations such as IPEN play a key role in strengthening evaluation and fostering dialogue between Governments, academia, civil society and the private sector, and we are delighted at the prospect of a closer partnership.

"UNICEF and IPEN cooperation will help CIS countries evaluate MDG-based policies and programmes," said Segone. "And effective evaluation allows countries, and the United Nations, to measure their progress for children."

In September 2005, UNICEF supported the IPEN Annual Conference in Kazakhstan by presenting future trends in evaluation, and by organising a training session on the implementation of good quality evaluation, including UN Evaluation Standards and Norms. In 2006, UNICEF and IPEN will publish a joint paper on the status and future trends of evaluation in CIS countries, and UNICEF will support the IPEN Annual Conference in Georgia.

IPEN is an informal Network established in 2000 to support evaluation capacity development in the Newly Independent States through development of contacts between local evaluators, providing information support, conducting conferences and developing relationships with professional communities outside the CIS.

For more information:

Angela Hawke, Communication Officer, CEE/CIS. Tel: (+4122) 909 5433, email: ahawke@unicef.org

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