Afghanistan
Executive summary
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Country Programme in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is the largest UNDP programme in the Asia and Pacific Region and the third largest worldwide (including third-party cost sharing). UNDP has provided assistance in support of the international community’s effort to build peace and foster recovery in Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002 although the 2006-2008 Country Programme is the first formal country programme. This evaluation of UNDP was undertaken in the context of its participation in an integrated United Nations (UN) Security Council mandated peace operation in Afghanistan the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
Evaluation of the UNDP contribution
UNDP presence in Afghanistan was re-established in 2002 following a decade of operations based in Pakistan. Current activities in Afghanistan are rooted in the establishment of the UN Security Council Mandate and the creation of UNAMA as an integrated UN mission in 2002. Its current mandate is to promote peace and stability in Afghanistan including disbanding illegally armed groups supporting elections strengthening the emerging institutions of state promoting human rights and managing all UN humanitarian relief recovery reconstruction and development activities.
Context and development results
Since the Bonn Agreement of 2002 Afghanistan has gone through a period of hope and positive expectation that reached its peak following the Presidential and Parliamentary elections in 2005. The peace process can demonstrate numerous successes: the creation of a transitional government the holding of Presidential and Parliamentary elections the disarmament and reintegration of troops the disbandment of many illegally armed groups early elements of civil service reform strengthening of key institutions of the justice sector and reform of the police. UNDP has played an important part in each. Yet each has been flawed albeit to varying degrees. Each has also been pursued by the international community as a practical checklist of accomplishments that fails to allow time and resources to ensure the substantive nature of these achievements. This has resulted in shortcomings.
Foreword
The Evaluation Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conducts independent country-level evaluations called Assessments of Development Results (ADRs). They assess the relevance and strategic positioning of UNDP support and its contributions to a country’s development over a period of time. The purpose of an ADR is to contribute to organizational accountability and learning and strengthen the programming and effectiveness of UNDP. This report presents the findings and recommendations of the ADR that was conducted in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan covering UNDP cooperation between 2002 and 2008. The UNDP programme in Afghanistan is among its largest in terms of financial volume although most of the resources are provided by cost sharing with bilateral and multilateral donors.
Terms of reference
The Evaluation Office (EO) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) conducts country evaluations called Assessments of Development Results (ADRs) to capture and demonstrate evaluative evidence of UNDP contributions to development results at the country level. ADRs are carried out within the overall provisions contained in the UNDP Evaluation Policy.
The evaluation
The purpose of this ADR7 is to: evaluate the results of the UNDP country programme in terms of its contributions to overall development outcomes in Afghanistan and to provide substantive support to the Administrator’s accountability function in reporting to the Executive Board; support greater UNDP accountability to national stakeholders and partners; serve as a means of quality assurance for UNDP interventions at the country level; and contribute to learning at corporate regional and country levels. The Afghanistan ADR was conducted in line with the Executive Board decision 2007/24.
Conclusions and recommendations
In Afghanistan international cooperation including that provided by UNDP almost uniformly adopted a ‘phased approach’ to reconstruction. Such a phased approach included an exclusive initial focus on restoring security early recovery and humanitarian activities. Institutional support and developmental activities were postponed leading to a power and economic vacuum at the local level that has fostered disenchantment and support for the Taliban and insurgent groups.
Summary of the structure of government
Formally the institutional structure of Afghanistan is a combination of pre-existing structures and institutional arrangements that emanated from the Bonn Conference and the Loya Jirga in 2002. Afghanistan has 34 provinces divided into 398 rural districts although that number has not been ratified. There are approximately 217 municipalities divided among 34 provincial municipalities (the capitals of each province) and an unclear number of rural municipalities that usually correspond to the seats of district government. The number of rural communities or villages in Afghanistan is a matter of interpretation. The Central Statistics Office counts 40020 rural villages while the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD)World Bank and National Solidarity Programme (NSP) count 24000 ‘communities’ for the purposes of establishing Community Development Councils (CDCs).
Strategic positioning
The review of whether UNDP is best positioned to contribute to Afghanistan’s stabilization and development entailed an analysis of UNDP’s niche within the development and policy space in Afghanistan the degree to which its programmes respond to the country’s development challenges the balance between upstream (policy-level) and downstream (project-level) initiatives and between interventions at the central level (capital) and subnational level and a review of how its strengths comparative advantages and human development philosophy were applied. UNDP’s ability to partner and coordinate with a wide range of national and international stakeholders was also reviewed as well as its capacity to address emerging issues and primarily the current security political and economic transitions.
UNDP’s contribution to development results
This chapter reviews the UNDP programmes implemented over the last four years against the ADR core evaluation criteria of relevance effectiveness efficiency and sustainability.