The 2010 Monitoring and Evaluation Policy makes terminal evaluations mandatory for all GEF full-sized projects, recognizing them as a key tool for accountability, learning, and transparency.

These guidelines set out the requirements for how Agencies must conduct such evaluations, covering projects that have reached completion as well as those canceled after significant disbursement. Terminal evaluations are expected to provide a comprehensive assessment of project design, implementation, and achievement of objectives, while also identifying lessons and recurrent issues that inform portfolio-level analysis.

Reports must be submitted in English and structured to allow aggregation into the GEF evaluation database, which feeds into synthesis reporting to the Council.

The guidelines emphasize consistency in methodology, quality, and scope across Agencies, and they set standards for assessing outcomes, sustainability, and monitoring and evaluation systems.

While focused on full-sized projects, the guidelines also encourage their application to medium-sized projects and programs to strengthen evaluation practice. By codifying these requirements, the guidelines ensure that terminal evaluations serve both accountability and learning functions, supporting better project design, more systematic knowledge sharing, and stronger evidence for Council decision making.