Program planning evaluation
ACC also suggested that the Working Party should follow the work of JIU on evaluation methodologies and be ready to assist the JIU where appropriate. With some amendments, these comments were subsequently approved by ACC (CO-ORDINATION/R.1255, para. 4 and annex IV) CCAQ approved draft comments, on the basis of a text drawn up by its newly-established Working Party on Programme Planning, Budgeting and Evaluation, on a JIU report on evaluation in the UN system (JIU/REP/77/1). (5) At the 47th session (September 1977: CO-ORDINATION/R.1238, para. (4) The work in paragraphs 1-3 above was reported to ECOSOC by ACC in its annual report for 1976-1977 (E/5973). (3) With regard to evaluation, the Committee noted the agreement in the Task Force that careful and precise programme design was indispensable for evaluation and that success in carrying it out depended on the clarity of programme objectives that other prerequisites at the design stage were descriptions of the indicators to be used in verifying progress and identification of linkages between inputs, outputs and objectives and that evaluation implied judgements concerning quality of output, efficiency in the use of inputs, effectiveness (impact) and significance (relevance). (e) Means of action to be used should not be included in statements of objectives.
PROGRAM PLANNING EVALUATION VERIFICATION
(d) Policy-making organs should not only review and approve medium-term objectives, but also participate in the verification of progress in attaining them. (c) The assumed links between successive levels of objectives and the related programme activities should be made explicit. The indicators to be used in verifying progress, and the target groups to be reached, should be identified. (b) They should be framed in such a way that progress in attaining them can be verified, without unduly costly data collection. (a) Objectives should be expressed in terms of a state to be reached or maintained and should be outward-looking, i.e., directed towards an external impact. (2) The Committee also endorsed the recommendations of the Task Force with regard to the formulation of objectives (CO-ORDINATION/R.1211, annex III, para. (f) The medium-term plans should identify areas where inter-organization consultations had taken place in the planning process, or where inter-organization co-operation would be required in implementing the plan. resource indications to the extent required to show shifts in emphasis.(e) The medium-term plans should contain: (d) The medium-term plans need not give information on activities at the programme element level. (c) The medium-term plans should be oriented towards the major problems and issues with which the organizations are likely to be confronted and approaches and strategies for dealing with them. (b) The medium-term plans should be on a fixed-horizon rather than a rolling basis, and they should be periodically updated. (a) The medium-term plans of the organizations should cover a six-year period, and the periods covered should as far as possible be synchronized, in the interests of inter-organization co-ordination and co-operation. 19) the Committee, having considered the recommendations of its Task Force on Harmonization of Programme Budget Presentation, agreed on the following principles for medium-term planning, while recognizing that not all organizations were in a position to comply in every respect: (1) At the 46th session (March 1976: CO-ORDINATION/R.1211, para.