IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.  The Union engages in and influences international agreements that are relevant to the conservation and sustainable use of nature and natural resources.  The four-person Sophoi team was engaged to design and deliver IUCN’s first thematic evaluation, aiming to establish not just what policies IUCN has informed, but also how the Union and its unique set of delivery mechanisms (Secretariat, Members and Commissions) have influenced policy.

Overall the evaluation design was theory-based, complexity-informed and outcome-orientated.  Based around a two–track approach which assessed evidence of policy influence from 2 perspectives – ‘inside IUCN-out’ and from ‘outside IUCN-in’, evidence from which was then integrated using collaborative sense-making to leverage IUCN’s own deep knowledge and insights to advance IUCN’s theory and delivery in policy influencing in the future.