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09 · Topic cluster

Norms, standards and quality

UNEG Norms and Standards, the JCSEE Program Evaluation Standards, the African Evaluation Principles, and how evaluation quality is assessed.

Evaluation has a professional infrastructure — norms, standards, principles and quality frameworks issued by the bodies that commission and practise it. Knowing them matters in two situations: when you are commissioning and need to say what good looks like, and when your own work is being assessed against a framework you did not choose.

These instruments are not interchangeable. The UNEG norms govern the UN system. The JCSEE standards emerged from North American programme evaluation and are organised around utility, feasibility, propriety, accuracy and accountability. The African Evaluation Principles, adopted in 2021, respond in part to the charge that imported frameworks encode assumptions that do not travel. The overlaps are real, and so are the differences.

Timeline of the major evaluation norms and standards, 1979 to 2024 A horizontal timeline with eight milestones: the Belmont Report in 1979; the AEA Guiding Principles for Evaluators, first adopted in 1994 with the latest revision in 2025; the OECD DAC glossary of evaluation terms, first edition 2002 and second edition 2023; the UNEG Norms and Standards, adopted 2005 and revised 2016; the OECD DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation in 2010; the third edition of the JCSEE Program Evaluation Standards, also 2010; the African Evaluation Principles adopted in 2021; and the 2024 edition of the Core Humanitarian Standard. 1979 Belmont Report 1994 AEA Guiding Principles latest revision 2025 2002 OECD DAC glossary 2nd edition 2023 2005 UNEG Norms & Standards revised 2016 2010 DAC Quality Standards 2010 Program Evaluation Standards, 3rd ed. 2021 African Evaluation Principles 2024 Core Humanitarian Standard, 2024 ed.
Half a century of evaluation's normative infrastructure. Research ethics (Belmont, 1979) came first; professional principles and glossaries followed; the 2010s standardised process and product quality; the African Evaluation Principles (2021) — which replaced the earlier African Evaluation Guidelines — and the 2024 edition of the Core Humanitarian Standard are the newest layers. Filled markers are the instruments treated in this cluster.
  1. 00 · Updated 18 August 2026

    The UNEG Norms and Standards for Evaluation

    What the UNEG Norms and Standards require: independence, impartiality, credibility, utility — and how non-UN organisations can use them.

  2. 01 · Updated 18 August 2026

    The Program Evaluation Standards and the AEA Guiding Principles

    North America's two anchors: the JCSEE Program Evaluation Standards' five attribute groups and the AEA Guiding Principles for Evaluators.

  3. 02 · Updated 18 August 2026

    The African Evaluation Principles and Made in Africa Evaluation

    AfrEA's African Evaluation Principles (2021) and the Made in Africa Evaluation agenda: origins, content, debates, and what they change in practice.

  4. 03 · Updated 18 August 2026

    Evaluation Quality Assessment and Meta-Evaluation

    How to judge an evaluation: DAC quality standards, UNEG checklists, meta-evaluation practice, and building a proportionate internal QA system.