Monitoring and evaluation

In order to ensure that the work of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management is carried out in full compliance with the mandates of the intergovernmental bodies and to improve processes that increase efficiency and effectiveness, the Evaluation, Analysis and Monitoring Unit of the Management Support Section, within the Central Planning and Coordination Division, conducts regular monitoring and evaluation in the areas of documents management, translation, meetings management, interpretation and printing.

The Unit performs analyses to ensure greater transparency and accountability in conference management, enabling Member States and senior management to make informed decisions regarding policies and processes. It prepares statistical analyses of key performance indicators and makes recommendations to address the issues identified. In terms of monitoring, the two main analytical products are the report of the Committee on Conferences and the supplementary information to the report of the Secretary-General on the pattern of conferences.

In addition to ongoing monitoring activities and the production of regular reports, the Unit also conducts in-depth evaluations to further analyse specific issues in conference management. The Department has developed, and recently updated, its own evaluation policy, based on the norms and standards set out by the United Nations Evaluation Group. The results and recommendations of the evaluations have contributed to the achievement of the Department’s strategic objectives and to the improvement and modernization of its operations. The Unit also works with the Office of Internal Oversight Services and the Board of Auditors to respond to requests to inform their independent evaluations of the Department and follows up on recommendations to ensure implementation.

In the context of these activities, the Unit has developed a comprehensive risk registry, in accordance with enterprise risk management methodology, to identify key risks for the Department and strategies for risk mitigation. The risk registry is regularly monitored and updated.

The monitoring and evaluation activities of the Department are constantly evolving, building on best methodological practices and new developments in technology to provide accurate and up-to-date information on performance. These functions go hand in hand with knowledge management, the standardization of operating procedures and innovation across all duty stations. Monitoring and evaluation contribute to increased effectiveness and efficiency and improved service to Member States.