Oxfam finds that for World Bank projects, many things can change during implementation. On average, actual expenditures on the Bank’s projects differ from budgeted amounts by 26–43% above or below the claimed climate finance. Across the entire climate finance portfolio, between 2017 and 2023, this difference amounts to US$24.28–US$41.32 billion. No information is available about what new climate actions were supported and which planned actions were cut. Now that the Bank has touted its focus on understanding and reporting on the impacts of its climate finance, it is critical to stress that without a full understanding of how much of what the Bank claims as climate finance at the project approval stage becomes actual expenditure, it is impossible to track and measure the impacts of the Bank's climate co-benefits in practice. The Bank should improve its reporting practices, undertake a climate finance assessment on closed projects, standardize how it reports on climate finance in projects and create a public climate finance database. A webinar was hosted on October 17, 2024 to launch this report and you can access the recording here. This page was updated on November 2, 2024 to address an error in the accompanying data. This change has no impact on the findings of the report.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to identify available reporting guidelines for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), delineate their fundamental characteristics, assess the scientific rigor of their development process, and evaluate their dissemination. Study Design and Setting: A search was conducted in Medline (via PubMed), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), SinoMed, WANFANG DATA, and the EQUATOR Network to identify TCM reporting guidelines. A preprepared Excel database was used to extract information on the basic characteristics, development process, and dissemination information. The development process quality of TCM reporting guidelines was assessed by evaluating their compliance with the Guidance for Developers of Health Research Reporting Guidelines (GDHRRG). The extent of dissemination of these guidelines was analyzed by examining the number of citations received. Results: A total of 26 reporting guidelines for TCM were obtained from 20 academic journals, with 61.5% of them published in English journals. Among the guidelines, 14 (53.8%) were registered in the EQUATOR Network. On average, the compliance rate of GDHRRG guidelines was reported to be 63.3% ranging from 22.2% to 94.4%. Three steps showed poor compliance, namely guideline endorsement (23.1%), translated guidelines (19.2%), and developing a publication strategy (19.2%). Furthermore, the compliance rate of GDHRRG guidelines published in English journals was higher than that in Chinese journals. In terms of the dissemination, 15.4% of the guidelines had been cited over 100 times, while 73.1% had been cited less than 50 times. Conclusion: The development of TCM reporting guidelines still has limitations in terms of regarding scientific rigor and follow-up dissemination. Therefore, it is important to ensure adherence to the scientific process in the development of TCM reporting guidelines and to strengthen their promotion, dissemination, and implementation.

IntroductionHealth information literacy is critical for individuals to obtain, understand, screen, and apply health information. However, there is currently no specific tool available to evaluate all four dimensions of health information literacy in China. Public health emergencies can present an opportunity to evaluate and monitor the health information literacy level of residents. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a questionnaire to evaluate the level of health information literacy and to measure the reliability and validity. MethodsThe development process of the questionnaire consisted of the determination of questionnaire items, expert consultation, and validation. Based on the National Residents Health Literacy Monitoring Questionnaire (2020) and the 2019 Informed Health Choices key concepts, the researchers drafted the questionnaire, including all four dimensions of health information literacy. Experts in relevant fields were invited to evaluate the draft questionnaire, and revisions were made accordingly. Finally, the reliability and validity of the finalized version were examined in Gansu Province, China. ResultsThe research team preliminarily formulated 14 items encompassing the four dimensions of health information literacy. After consulting with 28 experts, modifications were made. A convenience sample of 185 Chinese residents was invited to participate. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.715 and McDonald's omega was 0.739 for internal consistency, and the test-retest intra-class correlation coefficient after 4 weeks was 0.906, indicating that the questionnaire content and measurement structure was relatively stable. ConclusionThis questionnaire is the first evidence-based assessment tool developed for monitoring health information literacy in China, and it has shown good reliability and validity. It can help to monitor the health information literacy levels of Chinese residents, promote evidence-based decision-making, and guide interventions to improve health information literacy.

These Guidelines have been prepared by the UNEG Peer Review Working Group and are intended to facilitate the preparation, conduct and use of future UNEG Peer Reviews and other modalities for the assessment of UN evaluation functions. The Guidelines, originally developed in 2014 and considered an ongoing draft, build on the UNEG Framework for Professional Peer Reviews of the Evaluation Function of the UN Organizations (2011) and incorporate a normative assessment framework based on the revised UNEG Norms and Standards (2016).

The United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) involve society, economy, and environment, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an important path to implement the SDGs. Moreover, the BRI is a vision for economic development of countries along the route. Although many studies documented the effect of the BRI on environment and economic performance, few studies have discussed the effect of the BRI on social and economic benefits. Therefore, we introduce the public health expenditure to explore the relationship between the BRI and the public health and economic growth of countries along the route from the dual perspective of social development and economic growth. Based on a panel data from 171 countries from 2010 to 2018, the current research explores whether the BRI can boost public health and promote economic growth in the belt-road countries. As a result, we found that the BRI boosted the expenditure of public health and effectively spurred economic growth in the belt-road countries. Furthermore, the effect of the BRI on the economic growth in the countries along the route depends on the level of public health expenditure in each country; the positive effect of the BRI on economic growth is significant when the public health expenditure level is moderate instead of low or high. The findings provide theoretical and practical insights into the SDGs of the BRI.

In 2021, the UNEG National Evaluation Capacity Development (NECD) Working Group undertook a review of the progress on the implementation of the Resolution and identified areas for improvement. The review built on the development of a shared definition and theory of change for NECD, and included six case studies of national evaluation systems, a survey of United Nations agencies and interviews with internal and external stakeholders. The review found that UNEG members have been providing direct support to NECD through a wide range of activities targeting governments and non-governmental actors. All countries covered in the case studies have received support for the development of evaluation policies and legislation, in varying degrees, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) historically the most engaged. United Nations agencies have been working with evaluation champions including parliamentarians, Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation and academia, raising awareness and advocating for evaluation. Support has also been provided to develop the tools necessary to translate policies and laws into practice, such as guidelines, standards and competency frameworks. The most common contribution has been to individual capacity development, through training, establishing communities of practice, and learning-by-doing through joint and country-led evaluations.

Initially published in 2018, the objective of the UNEG Partnership Strategy is to guide UNEG members when selecting, prioritizing, establishing and successfully managing partnerships to achieve shared goals in the world of evaluation. The 2018 Strategy was prepared by the UNEG Partnership Working Group, established under Strategic Objective 4 of the UNEG Strategy 2014-2019. It was finalized and published following the UNEG Annual General Meeting in Rome in May 2018. The 2021 revision includes a review of the Purpose of Partnerships, a streamlined Partnership Development and Governance and alignment to the UNEG Strategy 2020-2024. The revised Strategy was presented and approved at the virtual UNEG Annual General Meeting 2021.

As part of its workplan for 2019-2020, the Decentralized Evaluation Interest Group (DEIG) mapped the key features of the Decentralized Evaluation (DE) functions of various UN agencies/funds/programmes. This will be complemented subsequently by a series of short briefs documenting best practices on selected elements of the DE functions. The intent of this mapping exercise is to facilitate learning and sharing of experience across the various UN agencies. It is primarily meant to be an internal tool although upon completion of the exercise, DEIG members may explore the possibility of disseminating this document to a wider audience among the evaluation community. All inputs have been provided and consolidated by DEIG members, which were also responsible for highlighting good practices within their agency’s DE function. Co-coordinators have also sought inputs from other UN agencies that are not members of the DEIG but have a mature DE function.

The UNEG Strategy 2020-2024 outlines UNEG's self-defined role, vision and mission, and Strategic Objectives for 2020-2024. The new Strategy reflects the situation and thinking across the UN development system at the time it was prepared, in particular with regards to working as one, delivering as one and being held accountable as one but also in the context of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. It also reflects increased interest in evaluation from Member States and senior management. The Strategy also provides a framework for UNEG's work over the next five years, whereby each work plan will focus on the three Strategic Objectives: SO1: Develop and safeguard professional norms, standards and guidance; SO2: Enhance professionalization and capacity; and SO3: Influence policy-making and operational work through evaluations. Partnerships, knowledge management and collaboration on evaluation are considered major enablers of UNEG’s work and, as such, contribute to the achievement of all three SOs. The first UNEG Strategy (2014-2019) was finalized and published following the UNEG Annual General Meeting in New York (April 2013) and the UNEG Extraordinary Meeting in Rome (September 2013). It was updated in May 2015 when Section 4 - "How We Will Work Together?" - became a stand-alone document entitled "UNEG Principles of Working Together." The Strategy is a living document and will be updated on an as needs basis.

The objective of this exploratory study was to identify structural issues that promote or hinder the use of impartial evaluative evidence for improved decision-making of the governing bodies of UNEG members and so contribute to learning on practices and/or institutional arrangements that support use of evaluations to inform strategic choices and decisions. The intent is that it provides the basis for the UNEG membership to identify issues to take forward within UNEG's broader work on evaluation use.

This Working Paper, commissioned by the UNEG SDG Working Group, provides evidence on, and analyzes the key issues, major strategic implications and urgent priorities facing UNEG and its membership in the context of the Agenda 2030. The report makes far-reaching suggestions for UNEG’s consideration as it navigates, and helps shape, evaluation in the era of Agenda 2030. Together, they urge UNEG to seize the opportunities and address the challenges ahead, by leveraging its unique evaluation comparative advantage in the inter- agency system of the UN to help ensure that progress towards the aims set by the global community as embodied in the SDGs, is assessed and communicated through the conduct of independent, credible and useful evaluation worldwide.

In its 2014 – 2019 Strategy, UNEG identified the use of evaluation as one of its key strategic objectives and sets as a goal that “UN entities and partners use evaluation in support of accountability and programme learning”. Under this strategic objective, the UNEG Evaluation Use Working Group gathered data from within the UN system and contrasted these findings with academic research from outside the UN system. This document presents the results of this effort.

The purpose of this report is to provide both technical and non-technical staff in the United Nations (UN) system with practical tips on how to strengthen national evaluation capacity systems. This report and the advice that it offers recognizes that UN agencies are involved in NECD in a variety of country situations and are assisting countries that are at different stages of maturity with their national monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems (NESs); also, that different UN agencies have different mandates and levels of experience and capacity with NECD initiatives. The report was produced by a UNEG Task Force on National Evaluation Capacity Development.