Summary

The evaluation conducted from July through October of 2013, was managed expertly by the Evaluation Unit in close consultation with the Research and Capacity Building Branch. This evaluation took place against the background of: (1) A decision by UN-Habitat’s Management Board to discontinue both flagship reports as currently produced and published and, instead, to prepare a single flagship report in the future, starting in 2015; (2) Financial and human resource constraints (3) Unclear boundaries between the two reports (4) Repeated requests by the Government of Norway, the flagship reports’ donor, for increased accountability, effectiveness, efficiency and evidence of use by target groups As per the terms of reference, this evaluation focuses “on the results achieved by the flagship reports in UN-Habitat’s normative work, sharing of responsibilities, appropriateness of planning and conceptualization, production, dissemination and follow-up on reports; and resource allocation for producing the reports.” Its purpose is “to assess UN-Habitat achievements, challenges and opportunities in raising awareness on human settlements issues through the flagship reports through the provision of information on global conditions and trends and policies to Member States and the Habitat partners”