Reports - United Nations Development Programme

COUNTRY EVALUATION: ASSESSMENT OF DEVELOPMENT RESULTS – TURKEY
Executive Summary
Straddling the borders of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Turkey is a
pivotal country in a geographical, political, historical as well as cultural
sense. During the 20th Century, Turkey has made great strides as a
regional, political and economic power. It has been a member of the
United Nations (UN), of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) and of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
(NATO) for decades, and now stands on the threshold of starting its
membership negotiations with the European Union (EU). But Turkey also
has a history of political and economic tensions since World War II and a
legacy of regional and social disparities that represent major human
development challenges for the country.
The UNDP has worked in and with Turkey for about fifty years. This
Assessment of Development Results (ADR) reviews the most recent five
years of UNDP’s support for Turkey in the context of the country’s current
and future development challenges and against the backdrop of the
UNDP’s long-term relationship with Turkey.
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PURPOSE AND APPROACH OF THE ASSESSMENT
At this time, the UNDP is in the process of reassessing its programme in
Turkey. A key purpose of this ADR is therefore to help design a strategy
for enhancing the UNDP’s performance and strategically positioning and
focusing its support within Turkey’s national development priorities and
UNDP corporate policies. This strategy will be based on lessons learned
from a review of the UNDP’s past and current activities. In addition, the
ADR serves as a vehicle for quality assurance of the UNDP’s interventions
in Turkey and for the UNDP Administrator’s substantive accountability to
the Executive Board.
Based on a review of current and past programmes, on discussions with
stakeholders and on an assessment of the UNDP’s comparative advantages
within the current human development challenges and goals in Turkey, the
ADR evaluates the UNDP’s strategic positioning and the status of
outcomes, the factors affecting outcomes and its contribution to outcomes
within five key human development areas: governance, poverty reduction,
environment, gender, and crisis response. Recommendations are designed
to be forward-looking and to suggest the best use of the UNDP’s
comparative advantages in today’s Turkey.
Given the limited time and resources available to the ADR Evaluation
Team, and given the fact that it could draw on only a few recent evaluations
of the UNDP’s individual programmes and projects in Turkey, this ADR is
by necessity limited in scope and depth. Nonetheless, the Team believes