Reports - United Nations Development Programme

COUNTRY EVALUATION: ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPMENT RESULTS – TURKEY
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Introduction
Turkey is a country at a crossroads, where East meets West and North
meets South and where a modern state meets deep-rooted traditions. A
number of human development issues still face the country, but in many
ways Turkey is different from the traditional developing country. Turkey’s
Government has made EU accession the centrepiece of its foreign and
domestic policies. To help it meet this goal, it aims to agree with the EU
on a date for the start of membership negotiations by the end of 2004. In
order to help meet Turkey’s EU challenge, the EU is scaling-up its
technical cooperation and financial assistance. The UN agencies, including
the UNDP, are also supporting Turkey’s accession process, as the
Copenhagen Criteria are founded on international governance standards,
democratic principles and universal goals of human development that are
consistent with UN covenants and conventions.
The purpose of this introductory chapter is to present the rationale for
the Turkey Country Evaluation – Assessment of Development Results (ADR)
and to explain the methodology used. The remainder of this Report is
divided into four main chapters. Chapter 2 presents a brief outline of the
national context. Chapter 3 locates the UNDP in terms of its strategic
positioning and the relevance of its programmes. Chapter 4 presents the
development results achieved in Turkey and the UNDP’s contributions
towards them. Chapter 5 discusses issues relating to resources, methods
and approaches used by the UNDP in carrying out its mandate. Finally,
Chapter 6 summarises the overall findings and recommendations for the
future based on this country evaluation.
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A. RATIONALE FOR THE EVALUATION
Like Turkey, the UNDP programme in Turkey is at a crossroads. Major
changes have taken place in the country environment and in the UNDP’s
own focus and capacities at both the global and country level. The UNDP
has shifted its global focus from its past role as the central funding pool
for UN agencies to become the UN's global development network.
It advocates for change, connecting countries to knowledge, experience
and resources to help people build a better life. Its focus is now to help
countries meet their human development aspirations and the MDGs by
working with countries in five key areas: democratic governance; poverty
reduction; crisis prevention and recovery; energy and environment;
and HIV/AIDS.
In Turkey, the UNDP’s programme has changed over the years both in
response to Turkey’s own changing goals and priorities and in response to
its own evolving institutional priorities. The UNDP is currently in the