Case Studies By Service Area
Evaluation and Research
Evaluating Institutional Effectiveness in Education Development
“A global view”: evaluating UNESCO’s education institutes.
The Scope
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) undertook a major evaluation of its internationally-based education institutes.
The institutes are governed and managed independently from UNESCO Headquarters but play a major role in the delivery of UNESCO’s education programme.
The evaluations covered all aspects of organisational performance including relevance, results achieved, quality of relationships and aspects of the management, funding and governance.
Our Involvement
MartinJenkins consultants, Nick Davis and Lisa Mutch, designed the overall evaluation approach and led the evaluations for two UNESCO education institutes. They were the International Institute for Educational Planning (858kb PDF), based in Paris; and the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (935kb PDF), based in Caracas, Venezuela.
Nick Davis co-ordinated four evaluations, and managed the input of other consultants. He prepared a consolidated report (704kb PDF) of findings and recommendations for consideration by the Executive Board of UNESCO.
The Outcome
According to Dr Amir Piric, Chief of the Evaluation Section of UNESCO: “The leadership of MartinJenkins in orchestrating these evaluations and the credibility of their reports were major factors behind the wide acceptance of their recommendations by the Director General and Executive Board of UNESCO” and that “The reports continue to serve as key inputs in setting the future direction of these organisations.”
The MartinJenkins Difference
The project required a complex mix of subject expertise, project management and evaluative skills, combined with the political acuity required to conduct independent and authoritative evaluations within this sensitive and important international development context. The result was a credible evaluative product that is proving its worth by influencing decision-making at a senior level within UNESCO.
