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141. The Rome
Declaration on Harmonization (2003) and the Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness (2005) have placed an emphasis on national ownership of the
development processes by ODA recipient countries. The Royal Government is
committed to take full ownership not only of its development processes but
is also determined to ensure that ODA resources are effectively targeted
and utilized to meet the high priority development needs of Cambodia for
the benefit of the Cambodian people to reduce poverty and to achieve
Cambodia's Millennium Development Goals.
142. However, in spite
of these commitments by the international community some donor practices
that have roots in the era of the 1990s, a period that various studies
have characterized as a period of "donorship", continue. The challenge for
the multilateral, international development cooperation partners of
Cambodia, and NGOs is to quickly translate the commitments made in the
international arena into concrete operational actions to change their
practices to provide room to the Royal Government to assume ownership of
its development management processes in an environment of cooperation,
mutual trust, and mutual accountability to improve ODA effectiveness in
order to maximize its benefits for the people of Cambodia. The challenge
for the Royal Government is to continue to put in place management systems
and institutional mechanisms that are transparent and accountable to
enhance aid effectiveness.
143. There is now an
urgent need to leave behind the practices of the 1990s, when development
cooperation activities were planned, managed and delivered by development
partners with limited ownership of development choices and management
process by concerned Cambodian institutions. As mentioned earlier, the
review by the Secretariat of GDCC in December 2005 of TWGs progress in
implementing the RGC’s Action Plan on Harmonization and Alignment revealed
that while on those activities that required Government action significant
progress was made, there had been only limited progress in areas where the
development partners were to take specific actions. Also, another study on
harmonization and aid coordination in Cambodia commissioned by DFID
concluded that both within the Government and among development partners
there is not yet a full understanding of the internationally agreed
commitments made in the Rome and Paris Declarations. The Royal Government
recognizes that it needs to strengthen the awareness of the Rome and Paris
Declarations among officials of the ministries and agencies and has taken
concrete steps in 2005. The Royal Government would like to see an equal
commitment and political will among the development partners to work
towards meeting their commitments of the Rome and Paris Declarations. In
the spirit of the Rome and Paris Declarations, there is now an urgent
need for development cooperation partners to give a high priority to:
-
harmonizing their
practices to minimize the burden on implementing institutions and to
reduce wastage through duplication of activities in order to enhance
ODA effectiveness;
-
aligning their support
with the Royal Government’s development priorities outlined in the just
completed National Strategic Development Plan for 2006-2010;
-
ensuring that
management arrangements of ODA supported programs and projects follow
the OECD/DAC guidelines on best practices for “managing for results” and
the principle of Government ownership of the development management
process; and
-
ensuring that there is
a greater net transfer of ODA resources, that are targeted to reach the
poor and vulnerable, to reduce poverty and to achieve Cambodia’s
Millennium Development Goals.
144. The Royal
Government is determined to build partnerships with all development
partners (bilateral and multilateral, private sector, non-governmental and
civil society organizations) based on principles of cooperation, mutual
trust, and mutual accountability. As noted earlier, a new mechanism to
strengthen government-donor coordination has been put in place in 2005.
This new mechanism that includes 18 joint sector/thematic Technical
Working Groups (TWGs) and the high level Government-Donor Coordination
Committee (GDCC) provides a forum for the participation of bilateral,
multi-lateral and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at both the
technical level (TWGs) as well as at the policy level (GDCC). The
mechanisms under the Government-Private Sector Forum are now well
organized and provide an elaborate structure for building effective
partnerships with the private sector.
145. In terms of
priorities for 2006, the Royal Government strongly urges the
multilateral, international development cooperation partners, and
non-governmental organizations to:
-
Place a
special emphasis on ensuring Government ownership of ODA supported
programs and projects in an environment of mutual accountability. In
particular, the NGOs need to coordinate their activities with the
concerned government institutions in order to better target and minimize
duplication of effort in order to maximize the benefits of the limited
available development resources. The sector/thematic TWGs can play an
important role in facilitating this coordination.
-
Strengthen
coordination of NGO supported programs and projects with ministries and
agencies at the sub-national level.
-
Ensure that
the principles outlined in the RGC’s Strategic Framework for Development
Cooperation Management and Articles 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the Sub-Decree
#147 ANK.BK dated 29 December 2005, as well as the principles,
guidelines and procedures laid out in Royal Government's National
Operational Guidelines for grant assistance and the Standard Operating
Procedures for loan assistance are followed.
-
Shift current
emphasis on processes to substance in the work of the TWGs. It will
require participation of donor personnel who have substantive/high level
technical expertise in the sector/thematic areas of the TWGs. The Royal
Government recognizes that the costs of maintaining this level of
expertise on the ground by all development partners could be
prohibitive. It therefore strongly recommends that development partners
select among themselves an area or areas that is/are of primary
importance to each partner who should be made responsible for placing on
the ground the highest level of expertise in the sector/thematic area
that is available on the international market and the development
partner can afford. The Royal Government strongly discourages the use of
donor personnel in the work of the TWGs who lack substantive technical
expertise in the sector/thematic area of the TWG and lack experience in
strategic policy formulation processes.
-
Focus on
improving the efficiency of TWG operations, the Chair and the Lead Donor
Facilitator(s) need to ensure that each TWG meeting has a purpose and a
defined output. To reduce burden of numerous meetings on ministries and
agencies as well as donor staff, the Royal Government strongly
recommends that development partners limit their participation to TWGs
where they are a funding partner and to more sharply focus their support
to a few priority areas within their country assistance strategies.
-
Carry out a
review to examine whether or not the TWGs as they are currently
structured are appropriate to meet the current and emerging needs as
well as develop broad guidelines for the operations of the TWGs with a
view to minimize burden both on ministries and agencies, and the
development partners participating in the TWGs.
-
Actively
promote sector, thematic, and other program-based approaches in the TWG
forum to reduce the excessive number of stand alone projects. The
adoption of this approach will not only promote a greater alignment of
development cooperation activities with Cambodia's development
priorities, but more importantly, such an approach would also lead to a
greater harmonization of development partners practices and reducing the
administrative burden on the limited capacities of implementing
ministries/agencies.
-
Reduce the
number of studies carried out by individual development partners on
similar topics by establishing a procedure to review proposals on any
planned studies among development partners and with the concerned
ministry/agency.
-
Reduce the
number of long-term TA's by placing an emphasis on quality -- taking
into account the suggestions in (iii) above -- and ensuring that
short-term TA is demand driven -- based on suggestion in (vii) above.
The Royal Government believes that the presence of high level technical
expertise in the country offices of development partners who are
actively involved in the work of the TWGs would significantly reduce the
need for short-term TA. The Royal Government recognizes that in the
short to medium term it will continue to need the support of high
quality experts to facilitate implementation of large projects,
implementation of Royal Government's reform programs, and for functions
related to developing strategies and policies for national
socio-economic development, and for building capacity at the central and
local levels to formulate, implement, and monitor development
activities. Thus, the needs in the short to medium term will consist of
elements of capacity substitution by high quality technical experts in
strategic areas along with a continuing focus on capacity development.
At the same time, the Royal Government would like to see a corresponding
reduction in capacity substitution elements as domestic capacities are
developed.
-
Demonstrate a
will and commitment and apply the concept of “managing for results” to
modify existing practices in line with the principles embodied in the
Rome and Paris Declarations. Take actions necessary to ensure that the
TWGs have the capacity to implement RGC’s Action Plan on Harmonization,
Alignment and Results that has been jointly agreed between the RGC and
development partners. Development partners need to expedite action on:
-
Delegating
authority from donors’ headquarters to country offices to empower the
country offices to work on harmonization and alignment issues with other
in-country donors and with the Government in the country context.
-
Increase
joint programming through “delegated cooperation”.
-
Reduce
individual donor missions and increase joint missions by coordinating
planned missions through the TWG mechanism to reduce costs and burden on
ministries and agencies.
146. Notwithstanding
the constraints, the Royal Government is gratified by the generous support
that the development partners provide to Cambodia. However, to maximize
its effectiveness it would like a greater net transfer of these resources
to benefit the poor and the vulnerable. The Royal Government recognizes
that there are administrative costs that are incurred by development
partners to deliver their development assistance that is included in the
total amount of ODA that is reported to have been disbursed to Cambodia.
At present, there is no readily available information on how much of the
reported ODA goes in meeting these costs in-country and outside the
country and how much ultimately reaches the poor and the vulnerable.
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