ECIAfrica

Projects

Conducting mid-term and final evaluations of United Nations-funded programmes designed to help achieve the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty by 2015

Initiated in more than 30 developing countries worldwide, LDPs are joint programmes of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and host-country governments. The LDPs are the centrepiece of the UNCDF's strategy to improve local service delivery, build capacity, and reduce poverty.

LDPs are premised on the assumption that good decentralized governance reduces poverty by making basic social, economic, and environmental infrastructure and services more accessible and relevant to the poor. The UNCDF's specific mandate is to provide grants for capital investments. It currently pursues this by focusing on small-scale capital investments in socioeconomic infrastructure and in capacity building.

ECIAfrica was commissioned to manage and coordinate 13 mid-term and final evaluations in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Overall, the evaluations assessed the effect of the LDPs on lack of access to basic social, economic, and environmental services; managing power within decision-making; and vulnerability to environmental risks. Specifically, the evaluations reviewed the degree to which the LDPs have influenced national policy reforms, led to replication of the LDP approach, and had wider regional and global influence on development practice. Going forward, the evaluations assessed whether opportunities exist for broader replication of the programme and the need for follow-up. The lessons learned will help inform the management of existing programmes and the design of future ones.

This evaluation is the third ECIAfrica has undertaken on behalf of UNCDF. In 2003, ECIAfrica conducted an impact assessment of LDPs in Mali, Uganda, and Mozambique. In 2004, we conducted a mid-term evaluation in Tanzania.

Worldwide

January 2007 - April 2008

Client:

UNCDF
UNDP

Contact:

Golden Mahove

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