Afghanistan
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.
Foreword
It gives me great pleasure to present the ‘Assessment of Development Results’ (ADR) in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is the largest UNDP country programme, representing approximately 15 percent of all UNDP expenditures worldwide. Evaluating this large and complex programme in a thorough, independent and credible manner required a long evaluation process, which began in 2012 and finished in 2013. In line with the practice of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), a series of consultations on various drafts of the report were then held with key national and international partners, leading up to a stakeholder workshop held in Kabul on 16 April 2014. The feedback obtained from all these engagements has informed this final report.
UNDP’s response and strategies
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part describes the goals of the ongoing UNDP country programme and how they fit with the broader objectives of the UN in the country. The second part provides an overview of the subject of the present evaluation: the UNDP programmes and presence in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2013.
Acknowledgements
The Independent Evaluation Office of UNDP would like to thank all those who contributed to this evaluation. The evaluation team, led by Olivier Cossée from the Independent Evaluation Office (with thematic responsibility for rural development and subnational governance), consisted of Ross Mountain (strategic positioning); Alan Fox (from the Independent Evaluation Office, in charge of rule of law); Constance Kaplan (national governance and elections); and Karim Merchant (capacity development). The assessment was prepared and carried out with the invaluable assistance of UNDP staff in Afghanistan, especially Alvaro Rodriguez (Country Director); David Akopyan and his successor, Renaud Meyer (Deputy Country Directors – Programme until and after 2012, respectively), who acted as focal points for this assessment; as well as Irene Bernabeu, Coordination Specialist. We also thank the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific for its very constructive engagement; the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for its support to this exercise; and the representatives of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the United Nations Country Team, civil society, nongovernmental organizations, donor countries and international funding institutions, for generously availing their time, information and insight to the evaluation team.
National development context
This chapter describes the context within which UNDP supports Afghanistan, and sets out the background against which the rest of the report assesses the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the UNDP Afghanistan Country Programme. The chapter identifies key governance, economic, security and environmental challenges facing Afghanistan; reviews the main national development strategies; and briefly explores the structures and coordination of international cooperation, an important feature in contemporary Afghanistan.
Conclusions and recommendations
The previous chapters reviewed programme achievements in detail and identified a set of common operational and strategic factors explaining, enhancing or constraining programme performance. The present chapter incorporates the most salient findings of the evaluation into overarching conclusions, and sets out a number of considerations and recommendations relevant to the formulation of the next Country Programme.
Executive summary
This report presents the result of an Assessment of Development Results (ADR) in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, conducted in 2012-2013. An ADR is a country-level evaluation conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Independent Evaluation Office to assess overall UNDP performance and contributions, and to draw lessons for the next programming cycle. The evaluation analysed UNDP’s direct and indirect contributions to Afghanistan’s development results in all thematic areas, as well as the strategies pursued by UNDP in the country from 2009 to 2014.
Terms of reference
The Evaluation Office 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.
Introduction
This Assessment of Development Results (ADR) in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is an independent country-level evaluation conducted by the Independent Evaluation Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2012–2013. The ADR assesses UNDP’s overall performance and contribution to stabilization and development in Afghanistan during the current programme cycle (originally 2010–2013, extended to 2014), and draws lessons for future strategies, particularly for the next programme cycle, 2015–2018.