The Institute for Development Impact is pleased to begin the new year with the “Evaluation of the United Nations Cooperation Strategy (UNDCS) 2016-2020″ for the United Nations in Turkey. The evaluation will assess the overall performance of the UNDCS towards its development and humanitarian goals, based on the criteria of the OECD-DAC and the application of the principles underpinning the Human-Rights Based Approach, gender equality, Results Based Management, capacity development, and sustainability. Additionally, the evaluation will look at the UN’s strategic position as it relates to Turkey’s shifting national context, government objectives, and needs of rightsholders in the country. I4DI intends for the final report to distill good practices and provide actionable recommendations to guide the cooperation between the Government of Turkey and the United Nations Country Team in the upcoming operational period.

Designed to be aligned with the priorities of Turkey’s domestic agenda, the Regional Refugee Response plan for the Syrian refugee crisis, and the ‘Leaving No One Behind Principle’ of Agenda 2030, the UNDCS 2016-2020 has a significant focus on uplifting the most vulnerable and those who have not yet benefited from Turkey’s recent socio-economic progress. This focus is particularly salient given the status of Turkey as the home to the largest refugee population in the world. To address this priority, the UNDCS is defined by four pillars of cooperation: inclusive growth and sustainable development, democratic governance and human rights, gender and women’s empowerment, and migration and international protection. To this end, the UN system developed an integrated portfolio of interventions to tackle these identified needs in an effort to affect positive change in the lives of people in Turkey. This portfolio of activities is the object of our evaluation.

In early January, I4DI is deploying an expert team of evaluators led by Serbian national, Zehra Dzihic, and Turkish nationals, Gökçe Baykal and Firuzan Silahşör Özdemir to analyze the results of the UN’s programmatic efforts. Collectively, our team has decades of experience conducting strategic evaluations for various donors and agencies working in the ECARO region (UNICEF, UNDP and other UN agencies, EU, OSCE, USAID, DFID, ADA, SIDA, etc.) and deep familiarity with the response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Turkey. Together, they will develop a non-experimental design for the evaluation using a mixed-methods methodology. Primary qualitative data collection will involve a wide range stakeholders, including government and non-government actors and UN staff, and quantitative analysis will be based on existing secondary data and documentation. We expect the entire evaluation to last five months, with the final presentation of findings slated to take place at the end of May 2020. I4DI looks forward to another successful engagement and adding value to the important work of our UNDP partners in Turkey. To learn more about this evaluation, and our previous work with the UN system, please contact our team.