PSD Evaluation Report

The United Nations Country Team (UNCT) commissioned a final evaluation of the United Nations Partnership for Sustainable Development (PSD) 2016-2020. The evaluation was conducted by a team of three independent consultants in the period September – November 2019 and focused on the activities, achievements and results of all resident and non-resident UN entities operating in North Macedonia in the period covered by the PSD. Its purpose was, on the one hand, to gather key findings and lessons learned to inform the development of the next cooperation framework and, on the other hand, to support greater accountability of the UN system towards agreed national objectives and priorities.

The findings of the evaluation have been shared externally. Initial results were presented to the PSD Joint Steering Committee, which includes UN and the Government of North Macedonia, in December 2019. The Committee endorsed the evaluation findings, which was followed by the finalization of the evaluation report (February 2020) and presentation of findings to donors and international partners (March 2020). Further validation of evaluation results with other external partners, scheduled for March 2020, was postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak. Nevertheless, findings and recommendations of the evaluation were shared with UN partners during the SDCF consultations, including during the meetings of three Sector Working Groups, a coordination mechanism that includes the Government, European Union (EU) and other partners, and further validated through the online UN perception survey (May 2020), which targeted UN partners.

The PSD was assessed as highly relevant as being:

• Aligned with the priorities outlined in the Government Programme 2017-2020​
• In line with and adequately supporting the country’s EU integration agenda and accession criteria​
• Significant focus on vulnerable groups (women, children, persons with disabilities, migrants, etc.).​
• Targeting crucial aspects of human and sustainable development​
• Ownership by national counterparts, including with by government co-financing in certain areas ​
• Delivering substantial contributions in all regions

Based on the findings, the evaluation report contains five recommendations for action by the UN system in the coming period, related to:

• Improvement of inter-agency cooperation​
• Further strengthening of partnerships, including with the Government and with EU​
• Improvement of the UN Programming approaches and tools related to monitoring and evaluation of programmes, better sustainability of the interventions and diversified financing.

The UN Country Team ​​accepted all five recommendations and developed an evaluation management response action plan, and will monitor and report to the Joint Steering Committee upon its implementation annually.