MOP Report

Royal Government of Cambodia

Ministry of Planning

MOP Report to the 15^th GDCC Meeting

Progress in the Preparation of NSDP Update 2009-2013 and the Harmonisation of Planning, Government Public Investment Expenditure, and Cooperation Financing

Excellency Deputy Prime Minister the Chairman of the GDCC

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. On behalf of the Ministry of Planning, I would like to thank His Excellency Keat Chhon Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the GDCC for giving us the opportunity to present a brief update on two topics at this meeting. First, a progress report on the preparation of the NSDP Update 2009-2013; and a second progress report on Royal Government’s initiative to harmonise the national planning process, government public investment expenditure, and development cooperation financing.

2. On the first topic, I am pleased to report to the meeting that work on the preparation of NSDP Update is progressing well. Since the last GDCC meeting held on 28 April 2009, the Ministry of Planning has taken a number of concrete steps to ensure the active participation and ownership of the new NSDP Update by RGC’s line ministries and agencies (LMs&LAs), while at the same time ensuring that development cooperation partners, NGOs, and other civil society stakeholders are provided opportunities to actively participate in the process of the preparation of inputs by LMs&LAs for the NSDP Update. In terms of specific progress since the last GDCC meeting:

On 1 June 2009, a RGC’s Circular on the preparation of the NSDP Update was sent to all LMs&LAs.

On 24 June 2009, at a workshop that was attended by all LMs&LAs, development cooperation partners, representatives of NGOs and other civil society stakeholders, further elaboration and clarifications on policy and technical guidelines for the preparation of inputs by LMs&LAs was provided by the Ministry of Planning.

On 29 June 2009, a meeting of the TWG-PPR core group was held to discuss how to ensure effective consultations by LMs&LAs with DPs and civil society stakeholders in the preparation of inputs by LMs&LAs. At this meeting the Ministry of Planning outlined RGC’s policy position and a process that strongly encouraged LMs&LAs, DPs, and other stakeholders to engage in productive consultations that contribute to improving the Ministry/Agency inputs for the preparation of NSDP Update, within the TWG framework. The MOP also asked the Lead Donor Facilitators of the TWG-PPR to work with all development partners and other stakeholders to ensure that they are ready and able to provide technical and logistic support, if needed, through the TWG mechanism to their concerned Ministry/Agency in the preparation of inputs for NSDP Update. The MOP would like to thank the two Co-facilitators of TWG-PPR for agreeing to undertake this challenging task. The Minutes of this TWG-PPR meeting were sent to all LMs&LAs and the Lead Co-Facilitators of TWG-PPR immediately following the meeting (attachment 1).

On 29 July 2009, all LMs&LAs, TWG-PPR Lead Co-Facilitators, and NGOs and civil society stakeholders in the TWG-PPR core group were informed by e-mail that MOP would like to carry out a comprehensive review of the monitoring indicators that were included in the NSDP 2006-2010, building on work that has already been done, and to develop a list of monitoring indicators that could be included in the NSDP Update 2009-2013. To guide this review process, the MOP outlined the "principles for inclusion of monitoring indicators in NSDP Update 2009-2013" (attachment 2). A Sub-Group of the TWG-PPR, chaired by MOP, has been established to carry out this important task. The MOP would like to thank TWG-PPR’s Co-Facilitators, members of the LMs&LAs, DPs, NGOs, and other civil society stakeholders who are making a contribution to this important task. So far, three meetings of the Sub-Group have been organised; and a template for potential indicators to be considered by LMs&LAs has been developed and sent to them through an e-mail message on 17 September 2009.

Since the workshop held on 24 June 2009, the MOP has been meeting with individual ministries and agencies and providing further clarification and assistance in the preparation of their inputs and will continue to provide this assistance as long as possible within the limits of the schedule.

4. As of to-day, not all ministries and agencies have provided their inputs. The MOP will continue to work with LMs&LAs that need its assistance. The TWG mechanism appears to have worked well in some areas; however, in many cases, the TWG mechanism has not worked well. There is an urgent need for heads of DPs agencies to follow up with their personnel involved in the work of the TWGs to ensure that required technical support is provided to their concerned ministry/agency in the preparation of their inputs. As noted in MOP’s policy position (attachment 1), the Ministry of Planning strongly believes that investment of time and energy on consultations, by both Government officials and development partners, would be most productive if these efforts are focused at the Ministry/Agency level who are responsible for preparing the inputs for NSDP Update and to implement their proposed programs/projects. There is an urgent need for DPs to provide support to their respective LMs&LAs now through the TWG mechanism in order to minimise the scope of changes after the first draft has been completed. The MOP would like to reiterate its policy position, that is, after the first draft of the NSDP Update has been completed, it would consider only those revisions that are submitted by the concerned implementing ministry/agency.

6. In spite of some delays, the Ministry of Planning is still hoping to complete the first draft by the end of October, as originally scheduled. The uncertainties of the impact of the global crisis on the Cambodian economy and bottlenecks in the operations of the TWG mechanism in some areas, however, are making this an extremely challenging task. As we move forward, the process of finalization of the NSDP Update will include the following steps:

The first draft will be reviewed by the four central agencies (MOP, MEF, CRDB/CDC, and SNEC) and revised as necessary. This review process will be chaired by SNEC.
The revised first draft will be circulated to all LMs&LAs, lead donor facilitators, and other stakeholders with a clear understanding that the MOP will consider only those revisions/comments that are provided through the concerned implementing ministry/agency. Therefore, it is critical that the level of technical support and consultations between DPs, NGOs, and other civil society stakeholders and their respective implementing ministry/agency is significantly enhanced while the NSDP Update preparation process is in-progress.
After the MOP has received the proposed revisions/comments from LMs&LAs, the final draft will be prepared and submitted first to the RGC and then to the National Assembly for their review and approval.

7. On the second topic, that is, Royal Government’s initiative to harmonise the national planning process, government public investment expenditure, and development cooperation financing, I would like to report that significant progress has been made. After extensive discussions between the four agencies, a decision has been made to establish a Steering Task Force, Chaired by the MOP. The Task Force has a clear mandate outlined in the RGC decision, dated 11 August 2009, as presented Attachment #3. Members of the Task Force have been nominated by the four agencies and the first meeting the Task Force took place on 23 September 2009. At the next meeting of the Task Force, the MOP will present its proposal on how to move forward in this important area.

Thank you.