Evaluation of UNDP Support to Conflict-Affected Countries
Publisher: United Nations Development Programme
Author(s): Mary Kaldor
Date: 2006
Topics: Programming
Countries: Afghanistan, Congo (DRC), Guatemala, Haiti, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan
Nearly 33 million people around the world were rendered homeless last year due to violent conflicts. The many agencies of the UN system are actively engaged in supporting these communities to reclaim the right to live with dignity and security. Crisis prevention and recovery is a core practice area for UNDP, with activities in conflict-affected countries constituting nearly 40 percent of global expenditure in 2005. Given the significance of this work, the UNDP Executive Board requested the Evaluation Office to conduct an independent evaluation of UNDP assistance to conflict affected countries.
This evaluation documents the changing character of conflict in the past few decades, underlining that violations of human rights and human security are not a side effect but a central methodology of current violent conflicts. The report concludes that while the international community has succeeded in stabilizing conflicts, it has not adequately addressed the structural conditions conducive to conflict. The response needs to be more coherent, integrating humanitarian and development concerns into peacebuilding efforts. A strategy to prevent conflict must address the conditions that are conducive to violent conflict and be bound up integrally with improving human security. For this reason, the report uses the analytical framework of human security to capture the sustainability and effectiveness of UNDP assistance to prevent conflict and build peace.