UNESCO decided to commission an external evaluation of its response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in 2002. The purpose was to analyse results, assess performance, and develop recommendations for future activities. It was to be a participatory exercise, which should contribute to capacity building in evaluation. The evaluation builds on data from Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia; Mozambique, Angola and Namibia in Southern Africa; Ghana and Senegal in West Africa; Jamaica and Brazil in Latin America and the Caribbean; and Lebanon in the Middle East. Kenya was visited as part of a thematic study on gender issues. The organisational topics of strategy formulation, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, decentralisation and coordination were analysed based on the field visits and on interviews at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The evaluation team conducted some 300 interviews with UNESCO staff, government representatives in the above mentioned countries, UN partner agencies, civil society and stakeholder groups concerned with UNESCO’s HIV/AIDS activities. The evaluation perused documents in UNESCO and outside, and was also able to draw conclusions from observing activities being implemented.