United Arab Emirates

The UAE made significant development progress in the past four decades, achieving strong economic development and political stability. With about 10 percent of the current world reserves of crude oil located in the country, UAE has become a major economic force through investments of its sovereign wealth funds, large companies operating in the region and around the world and tourism. It has taken successful steps to diversify its economy, moving away from an oil-based economy. The UAE is a regional hub for numerous global business firms and hosts a large population of expatriates, which has been growing very rapidly over the past four decades. The UAE population increased from 180,000 in 1968 to 7.5 million in 2010; of which only 20 percent are Emiratis, with an average annual population growth rate of 5.6 percent.

The Evaluation Office (EO) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) conducts country evaluations called Assessments of Development Results (ADRs) to capture and demonstrate evaluative evidence of UNDP’s contribution to development results at the country level, as well as the effectiveness of UNDP’s strategy in facilitating and leveraging national effort for achieving development results. ADRs are independent evaluations carried out within the overall provisions contained in the UNDP Evaluation Policy. Based on the principle of national ownership, EO seeks to conduct ADRs in collaboration with the national Government whenever agreed and possible.