organizations and academia.3 The interviews were used to collect qualitative data and assess stakeholders’ perceptions of the scope and effectiveness of programme interventions, contextualize perceptions to determine factors affecting performance, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the UNDP programme. A full list of interviewees is available in Annex 3 (available online only). The draft ICPE report was quality-assured by IEO through internal and external peer review processes, then submitted to the UNDP Chad country office, the Regional Bureau for Africa, Government and other national partners for fact check and comments. Evaluation limitations. This ICPE of the UNDP programme in Chad was conducted remotely in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning that the in-country mission data collection effort could not be deployed due to international and local movement restrictions. Local data collection efforts were not carried out to avoid any ethical and security risk in relation to the ongoing pandemic, limiting the ability of the evaluation to engage with community-level beneficiaries. Additional limitations included the availability of documentary evidence from project implementation, with important gaps noted in the record keeping of the country office. Some virtual interviews were constrained by internet shutdown in Chad during the interview phase, and accessibility challenges of interviewees. In response to these limitations, the evaluation significantly expanded the scope of the document review to include interventions of other partners and literature reviews, and extended the data collection period for interviews. Additional efforts were made to reach stakeholders outside of the capital Ndjamena by telephone. Despite these efforts, imbalances remain in the participation of stakeholders, with women accounting for only 10 percent of the stakeholders interviewed. 3
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1.3 Country context The Republic of Chad is a fragile low-income, landlocked Sahel country located in Central Africa with an estimated population of 16.9 million,4 comprising more than 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups. The country shares borders with Libya in the north, Sudan in the east, the Central African Republic, Cameroon and Nigeria in the south west, and Niger in the west. The country’s development has been compounded by multidimensional and interrelated vulnerabilities deriving from decades of internal and regional instability, armed conflict, environmental degradation, climate change and endemic poverty. From independence in 1960 until the mid-1990s, Chad was marked by a state of continuous civil war between the main ethnic groups for leadership of the country, with the establishment of democratic institutions, the first presidential elections in 1996 and the first local elections in 2012.5 Limited political space and representation have perpetuated a climate of political instability marked by social tension and armed conflict. Governance institutions are fragile, as noted in the 2020 Mo Ibrahim Index on African governance, which ranks Chad 47th out of 54 sub-Saharan African countries.6 Legislative and local elections have been postponed since 2015. In 2018, institutional reforms were adopted consolidating a presidential regime which included, among others, measures to remove the position of Prime Minister, dissolve the Constitutional Court, and allow the sitting president to run for additional terms. These institutional changes have heightened existing tensions between political opposition groups and the presidential party, leading to increased demonstrations and interventions by the security forces. Internal conflicts and social tensions have been exacerbated by regional instability stemming from the protracted crisis in Darfur and the proxy conflict
The breakdown of stakeholders interviewed: 40 percent representatives from the Government of Chad, 30 percent UNDP staff, 12 percent donors and other bilateral/multilateral partners, and 9 percent members of civil society and academia. Overall, only 10 percent of interviewees were women. https://www.unfpa.org/fr/data/world-population/TD. Upcoming legislative and municipal elections were postponed several times, but are expected to be organized in 2021. Ibrahim Index of African Governance online, consulted in December 2020.
CHAPTER 1: BACKGROUND AND INTRODUC TION
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