OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF UNRWA . 47 and collaborates with a diverse range of partners, and its partnership approaches are becoming more strategic and focused on leveraging UNRWA’s resources and comparative advantage. UNRWA has strengthened its approach to mainstreaming relevant thematic issues and increased accountability across the organisation for reporting on gender and protection results. Both MOPAN assessments of UNRWA note improvements in the organisation’s evaluation function, although there are ongoing concerns about the quality and coverage of evaluations. Since the 2011 MOPAN assessment and following the 2015 UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) Peer Review, UNRWA has established an evaluation policy and evaluation quality standards. Nevertheless, the organisation’s evaluation coverage is suboptimal, and no mechanisms are enforced systematically to measure improvements in evaluation quality. Box 4 and Box 5 summarise the current assessment’s findings on UNRWA’s main strengths and areas for improvement in 2018. Overall, the assessment finds that UNRWA has improved performance in a number of areas and preserved the strengths that were highlighted in the 2011 assessment. Box 4: Main strengths identified in the MOPAN 2017-18 assessment Strengths in 2018 l A corporate strategy with a clearly articulated statement of UNRWA’s unique and longstanding role in the Middle East, the comparative advantage it brings to this context and its alignment with relevant normative frameworks. l A workforce that is uniquely integrated into the communities it serves: A very large proportion of the staff are themselves Palestine refugees, meaning they are committed to the communities they serve and have a deep understanding of the social and political context, sensitivities and needs of these communities. l An embedded practice of results-based management that is strongest within core programme areas and enabled by a continual strengthening of strategy and performance management; regular review of and use of results reporting and data to inform planning and decision-making at different levels within the organisation. l Strengthened and professionalised resource mobilisation efforts to attract new donors and efforts to establish new funding mechanisms to address the Agency’s persistent and significant financial challenges. l Strong and consistently applied internal measures for managing the organisation’s budget and a rigorous approach to risk management. l An increasingly strategic approach to engagement with a range of actors and partnership approaches, focused on leveraging the Agency’s resources and comparative advantage. l Strengthened delivery of protection programming and mainstreaming; well-positioned for integrating the approach to protection across UNRWA’s programmes. l Education and health programmes that demonstrate an innate and well-managed capacity to continue to improve on quality and achieve efficiency gains across a range of challenging conditions associated with protracted crises and in emergencies. l Gender mainstreaming strengthened across the organisation with increased accountability for gender results and strengthened staff capacity to respond to gender-based violence. l Effective, decentralised decision-making structure across its core programmes of health, education and to a lesser extent relief and social services; a clear headquarters/field role division; and collaboration on all aspects and shared ownership of programmes across headquarters and field offices.