Acknowledgements This evaluation was carried out by a team of independent evaluators: Angela Bester (team leader), Bal Gopal Baidya (senior team specialist), Kanta Singh (team specialist) and Bijay Kumar Singh (team specialist). Elizabeth De Le贸n-Jones carried out research in the inception and desk review phases. The Evaluation Office task manager, Azusa Kubota, managed and oversaw the evaluation process, as a member of the team. The Evaluation Office is grateful to all of them for their valuable contribution and particularly to Angela Bester for the leadership she demonstrated in ably guiding the evaluation team through design, data collection, data analysis and reporting. The Evaluation Office received excellent collaboration from national partners during the evaluation process. A national reference group was established to support the evaluation, comprising the following individuals: Dhruba Prasad Dahal, Joint Secretary, the National Planning Commission; Kailash Pokharel, Under Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Prem Prasad Sanjel, Under Secretary, Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction; Bishnu Datta Gautam, Under Secretary, Ministry of Local Development; Chetan Prasad Guragain, Under Secretary, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation; Suvarna Karmacharya, Director, National Human Rights Commission; Dr. Netra Prasad Timilsina, President, NGO Federation; Dipendra Purus Dhakal, Freelancer, Nepal Evaluation Society; and Charlotte Duncan, Head of Governance and Security Team, UK Department for International Development (DFID). The group, led by the National Planning Commission, provided valuable inputs and enhanced the quality of the evaluation by commenting on the draft evaluation report. The evaluation also benefited greatly from the guidance and advice provided by the external reviewer, Prof. A.K. Shiva Kumar.
Acknowledgements
Our sincere gratitude is extended to stakeholders and partners of UNDP Nepal, including members of the Government, civil society, international development community, the UN family and members of the communities that the ADR team visited during the course of the evaluation. Special thanks go to partners who participated in the end-of-mission briefing workshop and the final stakeholder workshop held in Kathmandu. The evaluation would not have been possible without the commitment and leadership demonstrated by UNDP Nepal senior management: Robert Piper (Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative), Shoko Noda (Country Director), Jorn Sorensen (Deputy Country DirectorProgramme) and Mohammed Rahama (Deputy Country Director-Operations). All programme and project staff, both in Kathmandu and the UNDP field offices, provided the ADR team with invaluable support. We would like to also thank Heather Bryant, Dharma Swarnakar, Santa Subba and Morgan Murray, who provided superb programmatic and administrative support as the ADR focal persons throughout the evaluation process. The quality enhancement and administrative support provided by Evaluation Office colleagues is critical to the successful conduct of all evaluations. As part of the quality enhancement process, Michael Reynolds and Juha Uitto reviewed the inception report, as well as the draft evaluation report. Michelle Sy and Thuy Hang To provided valuable administrative support to the evaluation process. Anish Pradhan and Marina Blinova assisted in the editing and publication process with the help of an external editor, Sanjay Upadhya. It is our hope that this evaluation will help UNDP further leverage its strategic partnership with the Government of Nepal, as UNDP advances with its transformation process to become an ever more relevant and valuable partner to the country.
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