This chapter presents the evaluation conclusions on UNDP performance and contribution to development results in Chad, and related recommendations.
3.1 Conclusions Conclusion 1. UNDP has been a long-standing development partner of national authorities, enabling continuous support to key government functions on significant areas of the country’s National Development Plan. The fluid institutional and political context, marked by heightened social tension, has limited the sustainability of previous efforts and the scope of UNDP support to institutional capacity-building, limiting the prospects for uptake and scale-up. The UNDP contribution has been more focused towards downstream, community-level interventions for peacebuilding and to respond to socioeconomic vulnerabilities in crisisaffected areas. UNDP has been a key partner of central ministries and has extended continuous support on important dimensions of Chad’s national development, such as development planning, electoral assistance, and the national malaria programme. The country programme period under review was marked by important changes in the institutional landscape, including two constitutional reforms, frequent governmentwide reshuffles and prolonged strikes in the private and public sectors due to the security and economic crises. In addition to delays, this has resulted in gaps in the institutional anchoring of UNDP interventions, with limited opportunities for the necessary longterm planning, and limiting the potential uptake and scale-up of the technical assistance and policy advice delivered. Conclusion 2. UNDP was successful in leveraging financing from various vertical funds and core resources, but the fragmentation and small scale of funding has limited its ability to anchor and sustain its interventions over the longer timeframe required by the operating environment. While the launch of larger programmes in this period provides positive prospects, the current funding structure of the country programme poses significant threats to the positioning and financial sustainability of the
56
country office and limits opportunities for portfolio management and integrated programming. UNDP Chad operates in a challenging funding environment marked by the predominance of humanitarian financing and limited opportunities for in-country resource mobilization, on which UNDP programming depends. While UNDP was successful in leveraging various funding opportunities, the fragmentation and scale of funding mobilized have affected its capacity to sustain and deepen community-level interventions, anchor its activities in long-term programmatic engagement, and adopt a portfolio approach to its programming. The launch of the local chapter of the regional stabilization programme and the PADLFIT programme, if funded, represent significant developments for country office positioning, but the current level of resources available for programme expenditure in core areas of the UNDP mandate is insufficient to address the surging and compounding vulnerabilities of development challenges in Chad. Conclusion 3. UNDP has been an important partner supporting economic revitalization and peacebuilding in the various human security crises faced by the country, but there is limited evidence of the overall contribution and effectiveness of its support in building sustainable community-level resilience. While UNDP support to reducing economic vulnerabilities provides much appreciated and needed support to communities, UNDP project intervention strategies demonstrate limited differentiation over time. UNDP interventions in the area of social cohesion, peacebuilding, environment and inclusive growth have predominantly consisted of reducing economic vulnerabilities while promoting mechanisms for conflict management and trust building between community groups and local authorities. While a similar intervention model can be noted in the implementation of previous early recovery interventions, the programme has generated limited evidence of the effectiveness of its interventions or conditions for success beyond the duration of activities. Livelihood intervention models
INDEPENDENT COUNTRY PROGRAMME EVALUATION: CHAD