This chapter presents the evaluation’s conclusions on UNDP performance and contributions to development results in Viet Nam, along with the related recommendations and management response.
3.1 Conclusions Conclusion 1. UNDP has played an important role in supporting the Government to implement its national development plans and strategies and has established itself as a reliable, neutral and trusted development partner in Viet Nam. The weight of programming in all outcome areas has been in policy advisory work. Greater attention is needed to the actual implementation of policy, understanding opportunities and end user perspectives, and addressing potential barriers to policy implementation and scale-up. Its longstanding presence and partnership with the Government has positioned UNDP as a trusted and well-respected development partner in Viet Nam. It is seen as an impartial and objective broker and facilitator of projects, driven by partner needs and demands. Through its ability to work across ministries and institutions at central and local levels, UNDP has been well placed to contribute to national development through its international networks, providing policy and technical advice on development issues and leveraging policy dialogues to advance policy development and help implement reforms. Country programme outputs have fed into policy discussions and national development plans, which have contributed to reducing poverty, an improved legal framework on human rights, and greater institutional accountability. Gains have also been made through policy development and pilot projects that have helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve the climate resilience of communities (especially in coastal areas), and support government reporting to international treaty bodies and conventions. While UNDP has provided considerable policy advice to the Government, there has been no coherent policy unit since the end of the ‘Policy Advisory Team’ project in 2017. Policy advisory work has instead been dispersed among outcome clusters, with a potential reduction of contribution and
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impact, and missed opportunities for cross-sector convergence and harmonization (for example, overarching policy to enable green growth strategies in all sectors). Recently, the country office has adopted a new approach which emphasizes experimentation with the implementation of solutions, which is positive. However, an evident challenge is the absence of clear policy frameworks to which these innovative practices (like the Accelerator Lab) can be attached. Without a clear link between upstream policy work and downstream implementation support, UNDP runs the risk of being unable to support the Government and communities with nationwide impacts. Opportunities for additional benefits from convergent or harmonized policies may be missed without the whole policy ‘map’ in Viet Nam being examined. UNDP multisector, multi-stakeholder, multipronged and inter-institutional approaches have, to some extent, helped to address some institutional fragmentation and overlap, and contributed towards building a more obvious whole-of-government approach. UNDP has mostly played a facilitator role, enabling cross-government, cross-sector and cross-actor (civil society and private sector) work, as different project partners try to define their respective roles in new approaches to governance, climate and natural resource management, and poverty reduction and social assistance. These roles need to be further tested and adjusted in the actual implementation of new policies and innovative approaches. This is where UNDP can take more of an active role, designing and monitoring on-the-ground implementation of policies and innovations, including associated capacity building, institutional coordination and community participation. This would allow UNDP to move to a higher level of technical expertise, becoming more of a source of knowledge (rather than a facilitator) and better able to provide country-specific expertise. At the same time, UNDP can continue to leverage its global policy networks, becoming an agent for the transfer of knowledge, expertise and innovation to
INDEPENDENT COUNTRY PROGRAMME EVALUATION: VIET NAM
