UNHCR
Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit (EPAU)
Provisional work programme
January - June 2002
Introduction
This paper provides an outline of EPAU's work programme for the first six
months of 2002. It has been prepared on the basis of consultations with
members of senior management, Executive Committee members and partner
organizations.
Comments on this provisional work programme are welcome, as are proposals
for future evaluation and policy analysis projects. Please contact EPAU at
<[log in to unmask]>, or visit the Evaluation and Policy Analysis page of the
UNHCR website, www.unhcr.ch.
Evaluation methods
EPAU will continue to develop innovative approaches to the evaluation
function, including real-time evaluations, joint and inter-agency
evaluations, self-evaluations and beneficiary-based evaluations.
With regard to UNHCR's beneficiaries, a number of recent evaluations have
indicated that UNHCR appears to have less and less direct contact with the
refugees it serves. As a consequence, programmes and projects tend to be
designed on the basis of very limited information about refugees' needs,
abilities and aspirations. This issue was discussed at an EPAU-organized
seminar in 2001, titled 'Why do we know so little about refugees. and what
can we do to learn more?'
EPAU is currently reviewing a World Bank initiative, 'Voices of the Poor',
which entailed a worldwide process of consultation with people who are
living in poverty, focusing on the issues of security, opportunity,
empowerment and international action. The purpose of this review is to
determine whether similar methods could be used to develop a better
understanding of UNHCR's beneficiaries.
Evaluation and policy analysis projects
During the first six months of 2002, EPAU will undertake the following
evaluation projects. The terms of reference for these projects are
available on request.
Community services
UNHCR's community services function and community development policy
constitutes a primary theme of the evaluation work programme for 2002. EPAU
has commissioned a global review of this function, to be undertaken by CASA
Consulting of Canada. EPAU has also commissioned a beneficiary-based
evaluation of the community services provided to refugees in New Delhi,
India, the findings of which will be fed into the global review.
This evaluation project will provide an important means of assessing the
quality of UNHCR's programmes, particularly the extent to which they
contribute towards the welfare and empowerment of refugee populations.
Protracted refugee situations
EPAU, in association with the Division of Operational Support and the Africa
Bureau, will continue its US-funded review of UNHCR's role in the management
of protracted refugee situations. Particular emphasis will be placed on
identifying ways in which UNHCR can promote self-reliance and thereby avert
the need for long-term care-and-maintenance programmes.
EPAU will seek to operationalize the findings of this project through its
partnership with the Africa Bureau and Division of Operational Support
(DOS). In association with the Africa Bureau, EPAU will also develop its
earlier work in relation to minimum standards and essential needs in
protracted refugee situations.
Drawing upon its work on protracted refugee situations, EPAU will prepare a
paper on the role of local integration as a solution for refugees, to be
presented at the Global Consultations on International Protection.
Refugees in urban areas
EPAU will convene a stakeholder workshop to consider the findings and
recommendations of its December 2001 report, 'Evaluation of the
implementation of UNHCR's policy on refugees in urban areas'.
This report, based on a two-year process of research and evaluation,
provides a critical assessment of the extent to which UNHCR's policy on
urban refugees has succeeded in meeting their need for protection,
assistance and durable solutions. The policy will be revised on the basis
of EPAU's report, the conclusions of the stakeholder workshop, as well as a
workshop on urban refugees in Eastern Europe, to be held in Moscow in March
2002.
Refugee women
In 2001, EPAU participated in a global review of UNHCR's efforts to protect
and assist refugee women, a project undertaken by the New York-based Women's
Commission on Refugee Women and Children. The final report of that project
will be published in the first half of 2002.
During the same period, an independent evaluation of the Kosovo Women's
Initiative, commissioned by EPAU, will be completed. The findings of this
evaluation will be fed into a synthesis review of the 'Women's Initiative'
concept, as practised in Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda. The latter exercise
will be undertaken in association with the Senior Coordinator for Refugee
Women, and should provide valuable guidance for UNHCR's future activities in
Afghanistan.
Emergency preparedness and response
UNHCR's performance in emergencies will be another major theme of the EPAU
work programme in the first half of 2002. The unit plans to complete its
'real time evaluation' of UNHCR's response to the Afghan crisis by
undertaking missions to Iran, Afghanistan and New York. Two additional
'real time evaluation bulletins' are anticipated. In response to enquiries
from other agencies, EPAU also hopes to prepare a general paper on the
objectives and methods of 'real time evaluations'.
As recommended by the real-time review of the Afghanistan operation, EPAU
will commission a detailed review of UNHCR's emergency procurement, delivery
and stockpiling arrangements.
EPAU will initiate an evaluation of UNHCR's performance in the Guinea and
Sierra Leone emergency, focusing on the way in which the organization
responded to key operational policy issues. The evaluation team will be led
by an independent consultant, and will include representatives from UNHCR
and the NGO community.
Internally displaced populations
In 2001, EPAU undertook evaluations of UNHCR's programmes for IDPs in both
Angola and Sri Lanka. In accordance with a recommendation presented in the
Sri Lanka review, EPAU and the Department of International Protection will
convene an evaluation workshop on UNHCR's role in situations of internal
displacement, focusing primarily on the effectiveness of the protection and
durable solutions strategies employed by the organization. EPAU will also
support a planned Americas Bureau evaluation of UNHCR's programme for IDPs
in Colombia.
The bilateralization of humanitarian aid
The Humanitarian Policy Group of the London-based Overseas Development
Institute (ODI) is currently undertaking a cluster of research projects
which examine key trends in the development of the international
humanitarian regime.
In this context, EPAU has commissioned ODI to prepare a study on 'the
bilateralization of humanitarian aid: implications for UNHCR'. The review
will focus on the changing nature of donor state relations with UNHCR, and
is expected to make an important contribution to the development of the
organization's resource mobilization strategies. The ODI findings will also
be utilized by the 'UNHCR 2004' project, which is examining key issues
related to the future of the organization's mandate, governance and funding.
Migration and asylum
During the past two years, EPAU has undertaken and commissioned a wide range
of studies on the migration-asylum nexus. Building on this foundation,
EPAU will direct a research project on 'asylum migration: causes,
consequences and policy responses'.
The project will focus on five issues: the changing scale, pattern and
composition of asylum migration; modes of asylum migration; the implications
of asylum migration for countries of origin; the implications of asylum
migration for countries of transit and destination; and policy responses to
asylum migration. This project is sponsored by the UN University/World
Institute for Development Economics Research, and will culminate in an
international conference, to be held in Helsinki in September 2002.
New Issues in Refugee Research
EPAU will continue to be responsible for the publication of the UNHCR
working paper series, 'New Issues in Refugee Research'. It is anticipated
that at least 10 new papers will be published in the first half of 2002.
EPAU
21.1.02
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