AI for Evaluation and Outcomes for Children: Strengthening Evidence, Insight and Use – with an applied spotlight on AI-assisted evidence synthesis

Artificial intelligence is transforming how evidence is generated, analyzed, and communicated — creating significant opportunities to enhance the efficiency, depth, and strategic use of evaluative evidence. For child-focused evaluations, this transformation also raises important ethical and rights considerations (privacy, bias, safety, voice and participation) that directly affect the credibility and trustworthiness of evaluation. At UNICEF, the focus is not only on managing risks, but on leveraging AI to strengthen evidence-informed decision-making, advocacy, and results for children. Recent applications of AI-assisted evidence synthesis have enabled the rapid analysis of large, multi-country evaluation portfolios, generating actionable insights and policy briefs that inform programme prioritization, resource allocation, and advocacy for children’s outcomes. These approaches are helping to address a long-standing challenge in evaluation: translating complex and fragmented evidence into clear, decision-ready messages that drive impact.
The session builds on two strands of prior work: (a) UNICEF’s practical experience in applying AI to evidence synthesis and knowledge translation for advocacy and strategic planning; and (b) ongoing efforts on AI & Evaluation, including guidance on opportunities, risks, and ethical workflow alongside established practices in child-sensitive evaluation that emphasize children’s rights, meaningful participation, and context-appropriate methods.