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Global Impact Evaluation Forum 2025: Forging evidence partnerships for effective action

Posted on 24/11/2025 by Ola Eltoukhi
Global Impact Evaluation Forum 2025
WFP OEV

Background and rationale

The United Nations marks its 80th anniversary at a time when the world faces a convergence of complex crises, coupled with declining Official Development Assistance. It now has to demonstrate maximum value where it matters most: in the lives of the people it aims to serve.

In March, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, called for a Humanitarian Reset setting the tone for a more agile, unified, and cost-effective UN system. This requires not only robust evidence of what works but a fundamental shift in how we work together.

Impact evaluations complement other monitoring, evaluation and research exercises, by helping identify what interventions are most effective. However,    rigorous causal evidence from humanitarian contexts remains scarce.[1],[2]

Against this backdrop, the challenge is clear: to meet the demands of this new era, the UN system must decisively bridge the gap between evidence and action. But doing so in a timely and collaborative manner, specifically in fragile settings, remains a persistent challenge. 

The forthcoming Global Impact Evaluation Forum, hosted by WFP in partnership with BMZ and Norad, builds on the momentum of the inaugural 2023 WFP Forum, and the 2024 WFP-UNICEF Forum, to pivot from exploration to joint action across the UN system and beyond.

Discussion objectives

The Forum will convene practitioners, policymakers, and partners to explore how impact evaluation can align with these larger objectives, specifically in:

  • Maximizing value to drive cost-effectiveness in the UN System
  • Delivering global support for local action: building evidence for the localization agenda
  • Unifying action: Using evidence to support UN reforms and
  • Connecting efforts and evidence in the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus

The purpose of this online discussion, hosted on EvalforEarth and led by WFP’s impact evaluation team, is to build momentum for key themes of the forum, to be continued online during the event itself from 9-11 December 2025. 

If you’re interested in joining the Global Impact Evaluation forum later in December ONLINE, please register here.

The discussion is open for contributions until 8 December 2025

Guiding questions

  1. Bridging evidence and action: What are the most effective ways the UN and its partners can strengthen the link between impact evaluation findings and real-time decision-making?
  2. Localizing evidence: How can impact evaluations be designed and used to better serve the localization agenda, ensuring that local priorities, capacities, and contexts inform policy and programmes
  3. Supporting UN reform: How can the impact evaluation community collectively contribute towards goals of coherency and cost-effectiveness in the UN system?
  4. Connecting evidence: How can various UN agencies and partners, with diverse mandates, align evidence agendas in the humanitarian, development, and peace nexus?

[1] A WFP-World Bank literature review highlights the scarcity of rigorous impact evaluations in cash and in-kind transfers.

[2] A Global Prioritisation Exercise by Elrha identified challenges including insufficient feedback loops from research to scaling interventions and a specific need for more cost-effectiveness data.