Humanitarian evaluations
Improving UNICEF's humanitarian interventions and providing accountability to affected populations, partners, and donors.
Improving responses
In 2018, UNICEF and partners responded to 285 humanitarian situations in 90 countries, reaching millions of children with life-saving, intersectoral interventions. In order to improve its humanitarian response UNICEF relies on strong evidence of what works and what doesn’t work in emergency contexts. Evaluations of humanitarian action provide critical information that helps ensure UNICEF is constantly learning from and improving its humanitarian interventions. Evaluations also provide accountability to affected populations, partners, and donors.
UNICEF and partners work to provide resources for better evaluating humanitarian action
Evaluations of Humanitarian Action
- Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation of the COVID-19 Humanitarian Response
- Evaluation of the UNICEF Level 3 response to the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic | Webinar 17-1-2023
- Evaluation of the UNICEF Response to the Level 3 Humanitarian Crisis in Syria
- Evaluation of UNICEF's Cluster Lead Agency Role ('CLARE II')
- Evaluation of UNICEF’s Cluster Lead Agency Role in Humanitarian Action (CLARE)
- Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation (IAHE) on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls (GEEWG) and Review of progress: mainstreaming GEEWG in the H-D-P nexus
- Formative evaluation of UNICEF work to link humanitarian and development programming
- Review of the UNICEF L2 Response in Venezuela
- Evaluation of the Global Education Cluster (GEC) Action (2017-2019): Strengthening Coordination of Education in Emergencies
- Evaluation of UNICEF Contribution to Education in Humanitarian Situation
- Global evaluation of UNICEF WASH programming in protracted crises, 2014-2019
- Review of Progress in the Advancement of Child Rights in Africa: Reflecting on the past and future challenges and opportunities
- Inter-agency Humanitarian Evaluation of Cyclone Idai Response
- Real-Time Evaluation of UNICEF's Response to Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe
- Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation of the Drought Response in Ethiopia
- Evaluation of the UNICEF Response to the Humanitarian Crisis in South Sudan – Part 2
- UNICEF Response to the South Sudan Humanitarian Situation
- Evaluation of the Coverage and Quality of the UNICEF Humanitarian Response in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies
- Evaluation of UNICEF's Response to the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh
- Evaluation of the UNICEF Level 3 response to the cholera epidemic in Yemen: A crisis within a crisis
- Towards Improved Emergency Responses: Synthesis of UNICEF Evaluations of Humanitarian Action 2010-2016
- Evaluation of the UNICEF Response to the Crisis in the Central African Republic
- Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation (IAHE) of the Response to the Crisis in the Central African Republic
- Evaluation of UNICEF’s Humanitarian Response to the Syria Crisis
Significant Evaluations conducted by UNICEF Country Offices:
- 2013 Mali: Real-Time Evaluation of UNICEF's Response to the Mali Crisis in 2013
- 2013 WCARO: Evaluation de la Reponse de l'UNICEF a la Crise Alimentaire et Nutritionnelle au Sahel - Rapport de Synthese
- 2013 Pakistan: Evaluation for Rural Sanitation in Flood-affected Districts
- 2013 Cambodia: Final Evaluation of the Joint Programme for Children, Food Security and Nutrition in Cambodia
- 2013 Somalia: Final Evaluation of the Unconditional Cash and Voucher Response to the 2011–12 Crisis in Southern and Central Somalia
- 2013 South Sudan: Evaluation of UNICEF Programmes to Protect Children in Emergencies: South Sudan Country Case Study
- Evaluation Externe du Programme Réponse Rapide aux Mouvements de Population (RRMP) en République Démocratique du Congo
- Evaluation of WASH Cholera Response in 2008-2009 in Zimbabwe
- Evaluation of UNICEF-DIPECHO Programme Supporting Disaster Risk Reduction Amongst Vulnerable Communities and Institutions in Central Asia and South Caucasus
- Mid-Term Evaluation of the Joint Program “Conflict prevention and peace building window” (UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNODC)
- Evaluation of the Emergency Blanket Supplementary Feeding Programme (BSFP) in Five Districts of Northern Kenya
- UNICEF Programme for the Reintegration of Children Associated with Armed Forces and Armed Groups in Nepal
- Final Review of UNICEF-supported Programmes for Children Affected by Conflict in Kitgum, Northern Uganda
- Evaluation du programme 2007-2011 pour les Enfants Associés aux Forces et aux Groupes Armés en RDC
- 2011 Pakistan: Mid Term Evaluation Report: Early Recovery Programme on Rural Sanitation in Nineteen Flood Affected Districts of Pakistan (Phase II)
E-learning resources
Videos on Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation (IAHE)
- Evaluation of the UNICEF role as cluster lead/co-lead agency (CLARE II)
- Repurposing the UNICEF Evaluation Function during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Findings from the Real-Time Assessment of the UNICEF response to COVID-19 at country level
- UNICEF Mozambique 2019 annual review emergency response video
- Evaluating humanitarian response to major crises
Other resources
UNICEF's Evaluation Office - Humanitarian Section
The UNICEF Evaluation Office conducts corporate evaluations of UNICEF’s work in emergencies as well as evaluations of UNICEF’s response to Level 3 emergencies. Regional offices evaluate UNICEF’s response to Level 2 emergencies and country offices evaluation their responses to Level 1 emergencies. The UNICEF Evaluation Office also collaborates with the Inter-agency Humanitarian Evaluation Steering Group to conduct inter-agency evaluations of emergencies.
A core area of UNICEF work is on humanitarian action, where UNICEF is spending vast amount of resources to ensure that children in emergency contexts have an opportunity to survive, are protected from violence, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. UNICEF work in such contexts is guided by the UNICEF Strategic Plan and its Core Commitments for Children in Humanitarian Action (CCCs) which outlines what UNICEF commits to do across all sectors – health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), child protection, and education – as part of any humanitarian response.
The CCCs are aligned to international standards and guided by humanitarian principles. As a result, the Evaluation Office is responsible for evaluating humanitarian action for learning, continuous improvement and strengthened accountability. Evaluations undertaken include corporate thematic evaluations; evaluation of Level 3 humanitarian response, as well providing quality assurance for other types of evaluation of the UNICEF humanitarian response at the decentralized level. Finally, the Evaluation Office works closely with other humanitarian agencies to undertake Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluations (IAHEs) of large-scale system-wide emergencies to strengthen learning and promote accountability towards affected people, national governments, donors and the public.
