This chapter presents the evaluation conclusions and recommendations, and the management response submitted by UNDP Nigeria.
3.1 Conclusions Conclusion 1. UNDP is a well‑known and respected partner to the Government and development actors in Nigeria. UNDP programming was responsive to the priority issues of Nigeria. There has been greater emphasis on addressing conflict prevention and stabilization compared to inclusive growth and governance, which are the root causes of the conflict in Nigeria. UNDP needs to strengthen these in its programming if it is to help Nigeria move forward on meeting the SDGs. The national context described in Chapter 1 has implications for UNDP strategies and the focus of its programming in Nigeria.133 In a country that generally has adequate capacity and strong ownership of its development process, it is understandable that the policy advocacy space available to UNDP is shrinking. This partly explains shortfalls in progress against the results outlined in the CPD. On the other hand, UNDP could have better balanced the programme ambition and available resources. Though not well articulated in the CPD, programme design and implementation did broadly reflect the need for differentiated approaches, given the country’s diversity of contexts (conflict‑affected and lagging regions in the north and central regions, and accelerated development/middle‑income contexts in the south‑east and south‑west). However, this had the unintended outcome of small, fragmented interventions. UNDP implemented a recovery and stabilization programme in the north‑east, contributing to basic social services, livelihoods support, social cohesion, security and local government capacity in conflict‑affected areas, including women and youth victims of insurgency. Interventions under the inclusive growth component, such as support to MSMEs and start‑ups, skills development and livelihoods to minimize the effects of job losses, were implemented in the west, while climate change, natural resource management and associated issues of environmental quality and food security were implemented in the south. With a predominance of downstream stabilization programming, the upstream‑downstream focus was not balanced. UNDP contributions to the priority areas of inclusive growth and governance were limited, although the work on youth skills development and entrepreneurship has potential for scale‑up. These factors, and others such as recent internal management instability, have had an impact on the overall effectiveness and positioning of UNDP. The 2020 midterm review of the country programme reached a similar overall conclusion, but no follow‑up actions have yet been made. Conclusion 2. UNDP is a key partner of the Government in peace and conflict prevention. UNDP work on institutional strengthening for peacebuilding and conflict management was relevant to national priorities and effective at output level, contributing to the immediate objective of stabilization. But with a focus on short‑term capacity‑building in the form of workshops and other technical support, targeted to only a few institutions, the opportunity to assess outcome‑level changes was limited.
133
Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and most populous country; structural challenges include high poverty, inequality, unemployment, governance deficit, environmental degradation, growing conflict areas, increased federalism with Federal‑State coordination gaps and COVID‑19 impacts unfolding, as well as opportunities.
Chapter 3. Conclusions, Recommendations and Management Response
48
