UN-Habitat's Medium-Term Strategic and Institutional Plan (MTSIP) 2008-2013 was adopted by resolution 21/2 of April 2007 of the Governing Council. The overarching goal of the plan is "to ensure an effective contribution to sustainable urbanization". Implementation of the MTSIP started in 2008 and comprises six focus areas, an Enhanced Normative and Operational Framework and cross-cutting issues of disaster management, gender mainstreaming and urban youth. 

The purpose of the evaluation was to provide an independent assessment of:

1) The progress on achieving MTSIP focus area results over the 2008-2011 period

2) Efficiency and effectiveness with respect to the attainment of the key MTSIP objective

The evaluation was carried out between November and June 2012 by two external evaluators. It found that the MTSIP has rationalized and further sharpened the programmatic focus of UN-Habitat, brought about better alignment of programmes, and played a catalytic role in encouraging and enabling partnerships. The evaluation also identified lessons learned and proposed recommendations for improving the performance of the MTSIP.

The evaluation of the UN-Habitat liaison offices was conducted at the request of UN-Habitat management. The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the roles, relevance, efficiency, effectiveness and implications of the new reform of UN-Habitat on the liaison offices. Specially, the evaluation focused on key functions of the liaison offices in terms of organizational and technical representation, information sharing, advocacy and outreach, building of partnerships and resource mobilization.

Key achievements of the liaison offices and their challenges were assessed and analysed together with three scenarios for maintaining status quo, concentrating on liaison functions or strengthening the liaison offices.

The evaluation report presents findings, lessons and recommendations from the evaluation of the Rafik Hariri UN-Habitat Memorial Award launched in 2009 jointly by UN-Habitat and Rafik Hariri Foundation, the sponsor of the Award. It also covers an evaluability assessment of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Foundation and UN-Habitat.

The purpose of the evaluation was to provide lessons learned from the launch phase of the Memorial Award and recommendations to both UN-Habitat and the Foundation in order to improve future planning and implementation of the Award.