Eval4Action 2.0
The Eval4Action campaign and partners have championed influential evaluation and advanced national evaluation capacities and systems for half a decade. In 2025, #Eval4Action 2.0 was launched — renewing the campaign’s strategic direction in a more complex global landscape.
#Eval4Action 2.0 advocates for adaptive and future-proof evaluation that remains influential, relevant, and inclusive — deepening the campaign’s focus on youth leadership in evaluation and developing thought leadership on the future of evaluation.
The strategic direction for #Eval4Action 2.0 was set at the Summit for the Future of Evaluation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in May 2025. This vision is carried forward through monthly Future of Evaluation dialogues — linked to major international observances throughout the year — and through deepened youth integration across all levels of the campaign.
Youth in evaluation
Youth leadership is a defining and sustained commitment of the Eval4Action campaign and partners. The Youth in Evaluation initiative is built around a living manifesto to meaningfully engage young people and young evaluators in evaluation processes worldwide. The manifesto has garnered over 1,300 signatories so far.
→ Sign the Youth in Evaluation Manifesto
The standards for the meaningful engagement of youth in evaluation were launched during the first Youth in Evaluation week in 2023. These standards support implementation of the manifesto commitments by strengthening accountability and practice across the evaluation community. The Youth in Evaluation champion awards — recognizing organizations that have demonstrated significant action in meaningfully engaging young people in evaluation — were established in 2024 and presented again at the Summit for the Future of Evaluation in 2025.
Youth in Evaluation Forum
The Forum brings together young, emerging, and experienced evaluators, regional partners, VOPEs, and global stakeholders in an inclusive platform where young people actively shape how evaluation responds to today’s evolving development environment. A global inauguration — spotlighting youth leadership and announcing the annual cohort of Youth in Evaluation champions — will be complemented by regionally-led events that will generate context-specific commitments and advance the youth in evaluation agenda across all regions.
The road so far
The Eval4Action campaign and partners were launched in 2020 by UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem and United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake, following seven regional consultations. These consultations established a foundation for global partnership in advancing influential evaluation.
Since 2020, digital advocacy initiatives, public commitment campaigns, and collaborative knowledge products have mobilized the global evaluation community around influential evaluation. Over 133 public commitments to action were made during the October 2020 Commitment Drive, and in 2021, the evaluation community highlighted their actions to accelerate influential evaluation during the Walk the Talk drive. More than 30 blogs to date have been published, capturing efforts, lessons, and knowledge from across the evaluation community.
The #Eval4Action campaign
Aligned to the Decade of Action, the Decade of EVALUATION for action — also known as the #Eval4Action campaign — promotes widespread recognition of evaluation as a critical accelerator for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Eval4Action campaign is 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). Over 175 partners contribute to the campaign — spanning academia, governments, the private sector, Voluntary Organizations for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs), youth networks, and international organizations, including United Nations agencies.