Somalia

UNDP has been pushed – and has allowed itself to be pushed – into assuming responsibility for certain tasks and services that have reduced the credibility of the organization as a neutral and impartial development agent. This has resulted in a loss of ‘development space’.

UNDP implements programmes in Somalia under extremely difficult circumstances in a context of violence and attacks on staff and in a situation where a good part of the country is without an effective government or secular rule of law. The killing of the Head of the Mogadishu sub-office in July 2008 and the car bombing of the UNDP Hargeisa office in October 2008 have been particularly traumatic and have impacted considerably on the capacity of the organization – and the whole UN – to operate. One of the many consequences of these grave security incidents has been the evacuation of staff from South and Central Somalia and the severe restrictions on travel to and within other regions. The chaotic political process, continued armed conflict in many parts of the country, the emergence of radical groups and general instability have also been factors influencing decisions made by both UNDP and its donors.

Located on the east coast of Africa north of the equator, Somalia borders Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya. It comprises Italy’s former Trust Territory of Somalia and the former British Protectorate of Somaliland. In 1991, after the collapse of the government of the Somali Republic, parts of the north-western area formerly under British rule declared independence and became the Republic of Somaliland. In 1998, the leaders of the north-eastern region of Puntland declared it an autonomous state but without seeking secession from Somalia. The remainder of the territory, now called South and Central Somalia, spreads along the Indian Ocean up to Kenya. Somalia has one of the longest coastlines in Africa extending 2,720 kilometres. The country has an estimated total area of 637,657 km2 and a population of 8.7 million.

The UNDP Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) would like to thank all who contributed to this evaluation. The evaluation team was led and managed by Michael Reynolds. Other team members included Olivier Cossee (poverty reduction and environment team leader); Ximena Rios (management and operations team leader); and Grace Okonji (gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment team leader). Midway through the evaluation, Deqa Ibrahim Musa took over from Michael Reynolds as evaluation manager. She updated and finalized the report.

The Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) conducts country evaluations called assessments of development results (ADRs) to capture and demonstrate evaluative evidence of the UNDP contributions to development results at the country level. ADRs are independent evaluations carried out within the overall provisions contained in the UNDP evaluation policy. The IEO is independent of UNDP management and is headed by a Director who reports to the UNDP Executive Board. The purpose of an ADR is to:

This chapter focuses on two groups of factors that have affected the performance of UNDP in Somalia across all of the outcome areas of the ongoing country programme: (a) management and operations; and (b) strategic positioning. The former specifically includes issues related to management efficiency while strategic positioning is a factor that affects the performance of UNDP according to all criteria, but mostly effectiveness.