Since 2020, #Eval4Action has been at the forefront of championing influential evaluation and advancing national evaluation capacities and systems. Building on past achievements and recognizing the complex global landscape today marked by financial constraints, crises and rapid technological advancements, #Eval4Action is renewing its strategic direction to solidify the role of evaluation as a critical driver of sustainable development.
Kicked off in 2025, #Eval4Action 2.0 is advocating for adaptive and future-proof evaluation that remains influential, relevant and inclusive. It's doing this by continuing its successful digital strategy and using its strong network of partners to deepen its focus on its flagship 'Youth in Evaluation' initiative and develop thought leadership on the 'Future of Evaluation'.
The direction for #Eval4Action 2.0 was set at the Summit for the Future of Evaluation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in May 2025. This new vision for the ‘Future of Evaluation’ is being celebrated with the symbolic #EvalTorch relay, which is traveling the world to inspire action to make evaluation ready for global challenges and opportunities.
The road so far
#Eval4Action was launched in 2020 by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem and United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake, following 7 regional consultations in Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Eurasia, Africa and North America. These consultations laid a strong foundation for partnership and collaboration which #Eval4Action has built into a worldwide alliance for influential evaluation.
Over the years, #Eval4Action undertook several digital advocacy drives to revitalize global engagement, commitment and action on influential evaluation. During the Commitment Drive in October 2020, 133 public commitments to action for influential evaluation were declared. These public declarations paved the way for stronger national and regional advocacy for evaluation capacities and policies. In 2021, the evaluation community highlighted their actions to accelerate influential evaluation during the Walk the Talk video drive, delivering on the commitments made the previous year. The campaign has also released over 30 blogs, which capture the efforts, lessons and knowledge of the evaluation community in advancing influential evaluation.
Youth in Evaluation
A defining and sustained feature of #Eval4Action has been its unwavering commitment and action to strengthen authentic youth leadership in evaluation. In 2022, #Eval4Action kicked off the Youth in Evaluation initiative, along with the launch of a manifesto to meaningfully engage youth and young evaluators in evaluation, which has garnered over 1200 signatories. During the first Youth in Evaluation week in 2023, the standards for enhancing meaningful engagement of youth in evaluation were launched. The standards support the implementation of the commitments in the manifesto by improving accountability and practice in engaging youth in evaluation. The Youth in Evaluation champion awards, recognizing organizations in various sectors that have demonstrated significant action in meaningfully engaging young people in evaluation, were first announced during the Youth in Evaluation week 2024. The second cohort of champions were awarded in 2025 during the Summit for the Future of Evaluation.
The #Eval4Action campaign
Aligned to the Decade of Action, the Decade of EVALUATION for action, also known as the #Eval4Action campaign, seeks to promote widespread recognition of evaluation being critical to, and a key accelerator for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Co-led by the UNFPA Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), EvalYouth Global Network, the Global Parliamentarians Forum for Evaluation (GPFE), and the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE), the campaign has over 170 partners from various sectors such as academia, governments, the private sector, VOPEs, youth networks, international organizations including United Nations agencies and more.