The evaluation policy requires that WHO develop a biennial, Organization-wide evaluation workplan as part of its planning and budgeting cycle. The biennial workplan ensures accountability and oversight of performance and results and reinforces organizational learning in a way that informs policy development and operational decisions leading to enhanced organizational performance and achievement of results.

The 2022-2023 biennial workplan (see document EB150/35) was developed in consultation with senior WHO colleagues across the Organization, reviewed by the Independent Expert Oversight Advisory Committee in October 2021, and approved after review by the 150th session of the Executive Board. It includes corporate/centralized evaluations to be managed, commissioned or conducted by the Evaluation Office (programmatic, thematic and office-specific evaluations).

Roll-over corporate evaluations (that commenced in 2021)

• mid-term evaluation of the implementation of the strategic action plan on polio transition;
• corporate evaluation of WHO’s results-based management framework; and
• country programme evaluations.¹

Carry-over corporate evaluations (from 2020-2021):

• evaluation of WHO’s normative functions at country level;
• formative evaluation of the implementation of the Research and Development Blueprint for Action to Prevent Epidemics and its plan of action;
• evaluation of the work of two departments of the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean: Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, and Science and Information; and
• evaluation of the utilization of Special Service Agreements.

New corporate evaluations:

• preliminary evaluation of the Special Programme on Primary Health Care (to be conducted mid-2022);
• evaluation of World Health Days;
• formative evaluation of the implementation of the WHO policy on disability (to be conducted in 2023);
• mid-term evaluation of the global strategy to Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics 2017-2026;
• evaluation of the contribution of data and delivery to the implementation and impact of the Thirteenth General Programme of Work, 2019–2023 and WHO transformation;
• evaluation of WHO’s delegation of authority and online workflow processes and systems;
• evaluation of the WHO Tuberculosis Programme;
• joint evaluation of the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All (to be conducted in 2023);
• Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluations (IAHE) of Grade 3 emergencies; and
• Evaluation of the functional reviews of WHO country offices in the African Region (to be conducted in 2023).

The workplan also proposes decentralized evaluations to be managed, commissioned or conducted outside the Evaluation Office, i.e. initiated by headquarters divisions, regional offices or country offices, of which six are currently planned. These mainly comprise programmatic and thematic evaluations for which the

Evaluation Office is available to provide quality assurance and technical backstopping (including access to a pre-qualified global roster of external evaluators).

In the table below, evaluations are categorized against certain types reflecting either: a) specific programmes; b) cross-cutting themes or relevance to the core functions and strategies of WHO; or c) office-specific evaluations. Evaluations also respond to certain rationale: a) a “requirement” as requested in a WHO governing body document, WHO strategy or specific agreement with stakeholders, partners or donors; b) “significance” of the issue, i.e. having strategic, policy or operational implications; or c) “utility” of the evaluation for WHO’s organizational learning and improvement of its performance.

Organization-wide evaluation workplan for 2022-2023²

¹ These evaluations were postponed due to interruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, country programme evaluations are planned in Bangladesh, China, Jordan, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, the Syrian Arab Republic and Timor-Leste, with others to be defined.

² Member State suggestions and recommendations on the evaluation workplan were provided at the thirty-fifth meeting of the Programme Budget and Administration Committee of the Executive Board (see document EB150/5) and at the 150th session of the Executive Board (see Official Records), including for evaluations related to the Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13). Due consideration will be given to a suggestion to conduct an additional mid-term evaluation of GPW13 to identify low-risk, high-yield opportunities as well as areas requiring additional investments towards achievement of the triple billion targets, and to suggestions for elaborating Terms of Reference for the planned evaluation of the contribution of data and delivery to the implementation and impact of the GPW13 and WHO transformation. Further development and implementation of the workplan will consider how outcomes of several evaluations will, together, provide insights and lessons of pertinence for the development of the Fourteenth General Programme of Work.