Development Partner Response Statement - Detailed Overview

Joint Monitoring Indicators

delivered by H.E Masafumi Kuroki, Ambassador of Japan to Cambodia

at the
19th Meeting of
The Government-Development Partner Coordination Committee
Phnom Penh, 26 September, 2012

Development partners welcome the participative process put in place by the Royal Government of Cambodia to strengthen the process to formulate and implement the Joint Monitoring Indicators (JMIs).

Guided by the overarching objective to strengthen results based planning, and to more fully reflect the principles of aid effectiveness, in particular as embodied in the Busan Declaration, the 2012 JMI exercise makes significant strides towards a quality results framework to guide the activities of the TWGs over the next two years.

The new JMI process embodies a number of critical features:

• Strengthening the ongoing dialogue process between and across the TWGs;

• Leveraging the strong technical support and facilitation activities of the Cambodian Rehabilitation  and Development Board (CRDB) of the Council for the Development of Cambodia to build capacity in the TWGs and associated institutions to strengthen the development and monitoring of JMIs;

• Linking more closely with existing related results frameworks;

• Enhancing awareness among all stakeholders of results frameworks, results-based programming and management, and results chains; and

• Building an understanding of SMART indicators.

Development partners offer the following suggestions to strengthen the JMI process:

• While the new JMI process makes much better use of existing results frameworks and the indicators of the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP), considerable scope remains for improving these existing frameworks and integrating the JMIs more closely with the policy directions and indicators of the NSDP and the Cambodia Millennium Development Goals. The focus on outputs and outcomes requires strong inter-ministerial coordination, especially for the “cross-cutting” JMIs linked to broader government reforms;

• While it is clearly recognized that the 2012 JMI exercise has been the most consultative, participatory and more thorough than any JMI exercise to date, there remains potential to broaden and deepen stakeholder engagement, especially with civil society and sub-national stakeholders. The role to date of civil society at the TWG level in developing the JMIs should be stressed, and their closer involvement in all aspects of the JMI process welcomed;

• The 2012 JMI process also offered some opportunity for interaction between TWGs, specifically regarding issues covered by the Public Administrative Reform, Public Financial Management (PFM), and Deconcentration and Decentralization TWGs, with the aim of identifying and defining “cross-cutting” JMIs. Development partners look forward to supporting continuing Government efforts to  facilitate and support much closer dialogue between TWGs;

• Any results-based management system is only as good as its ability to monitor and evaluate the results, utilizing inputs from all stakeholders. Development partners urge immediate attention to developing and strengthening the monitoring and evaluation systems and the underlying PFM systems that would support the monitoring and evaluation of results for the JMIs;

• In addition to the alignment to NSDP, the development partners expect that the JMIs will encourage further systemic alignment of ODA resources toward the more urgent and important development priorities of Cambodia; and

• As a key element of strengthening the JMI dialogue process within the TWGs Development Partners suggest to strengthen mechanisms for addressing JMI implementation constraints within the TWGs, including the revising or reinforcing the mandate of the TWGs as required.

Development partners appreciate the committed efforts of all stakeholders in the aid effectiveness process – including the TWG Chairs, development partner co-facilitators, the TWG secretariat staff, and the technical staff of all government and development partners, including civil society. The close support and interest of the Ministry of Planning is particularly appreciated. Development partners recognize the importance of the GDCC’s endorsement of the new and improved JMIs that have been developed by the TWGs and formally agreed by the TWG Chairs and Development Partner co-chairs. Development partners fully support the endorsement today of the new JMIs, and look forward to continued close cooperation with all stakeholders to implement them and maximize the development effectiveness of the whole process.