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Agenda, JMls,
AER, MYIFF
Thank you Excellency Chair
Colleagues from
the Royal
Government
I am pleased to have the opportunity to present what will be a very short summary of plans for the forthcoming CDCF meeting on 2nd and 3rd June.
I wish to briefly address four main issues: 1. The CDCF agenda 2. The JMI process 3. The 2010 Aid Effectiveness Report; and finally 4. The Multi-year Indicative Financing Framework
My objective is to ensure that we all have a common understanding of the process and the remaining actions that we need to take to lay the foundations for a successful CDCF meeting.
So please allow me to go directly to the first issue, the CDCF agenda.
The over-arching theme of the CDCF is "Implementation of the Rectangular Strategy Phase II - using the NSDP Update". By focusing on this theme we will ensure that the reforms and sector work of the Royal Government that have been operationalised through the NSDP, together with the support of development partners, are fully aligned with the objectives and implementation period of the Rectangular Strategy.
In line with our efforts to promote a more results-based approach to our work - which can be seen in the JMls and increasingly in sector strategies - each CDCF session is to identify concrete results areas that can guide future sector work as well as our dialogue at future GDCC meetings.
It is therefore important that as we draft and negotiate statements, there is a comprehensive process of consultations within both the Royal Government and development partner groups, including to ensure that cross-cutting issues are fully integrated in each session. Where necessary, TWG Chairs and Lead Development Partner facilitators of the TWGs should also meet to identify key areas of agreement. This will most likely make reference to the JMls that have already been agreed but will perhaps provide more detail on how immediate and joint actions - for example in resource mobilisation - can ensure that we move swiftly towards results.
Efforts in the next weeks to reach consensus and identify concrete actions will therefore ensure that the CDCF helps us to agree a clear and achievable roadmap to reaching results. This is what the CDCF meeting is about.
As Secretary General of the CDCF, I will provide full support to any Government or development partner colleague that requires further advice or guidance on this matter.
The second theme I wish to address concerns the Joint Monitoring Indicators.
The JMI Report has been made available to this meeting. Results in each sector or TWG should have been discussed as part of the reporting exercise and used to inform the identification of new JMls to be agreed here today and endorsed at the CDCF meeting.
Furthermore, the new format that we have adopted for the JMls - which was discussed at an open meeting on February 16th - should help us to focus on results and the joint actions that need to be taken in order to achieve them. The JMls were again discussed by Government at a meeting of the TWG Network before the Khmer New Year and I hope we can agree the JMls with our development partners today.
We then perhaps need to give further consideration to measures that can strengthen the monitoring process, including by reviewing the way we currently use the GDCC meetings to monitor progress and address challenges that emerge during implementation. I will make specific proposals on this issue of JMI monitoring at the CDCF and will consult with the World Bank - as CDCF Lead Facilitator - and with UNDP and SIDA - as P+H TWG facilitators in the interim period.
We next move to the Aid Effectiveness Report, which details progress in our work that has also evolved to emphasise a results-focused approach.
Aid flows continue to increase to a little less than 1 billion US Dollars in 2009 and potentially slightly more than 1 billion in 2010. The draft Aid Effectiveness Report has been shared - and I thank all of you who have provided comments - and I would refer this document to all of you who are interested in learning more about trends in aid flows.
But my focus here today, ladies and gentlemen, is on effectiveness. There is a session devoted to this topic at the CDCF but I can give you some idea now of the main issues we need to consider as that will help to prepare us for a dialogue that I hope can move us to a consensus and then to determined action. As in almost all other partner countries, we continue to face challenges in translating a normative and technical agenda into something that can command the attention and support of leadership on both Government and development sides.
The Report, which is supported by findings of the Paris Declaration Evaluation, suggests that we are stuck in a status quo, a low-level equilibrium which is neither efficient nor effective. We must therefore continue to strengthen ownership, primarily by promoting the synergy between leadership and capacity that our analysis has identified as the principal driver of ownership. I am encouraged to report that progress has been made in some areas - especially in strategic planning at sector level and on alignment with national priorities - and this has informed our policy position to build on existing strengths where we see opportunity to consolidate and make further advances.
At a technical level, we identify programme-based approaches as the preferred tool for reinforcing ownership as well as simultaneously addressing issues of fragmentation, incoherent capacity support and ineffective technical cooperation, and for integrating the core reforms that will deliver and sustain the kind of performance we need to ensure that not only is aid effective but also to secure the results articulated in the NSDP and sector plans.
To press for the more determined response that we still require from development partners, we will continue to focus on strengthening partnerships. Cambodia's membership in global processes will also allow the Government to continue to press development partner's to honour their commitments as well as to shape the 2011 agreement that will succeed the Paris Declaration.
I strongly recommend that all GDCC members read the Aid Effectiveness Report and come to the CDCF prepared to make a contribution to the discussion, which will focus on the main priority identified in JMI number 2, the use of programme-based approaches. My address at that meeting will make some specific proposals on how we can move forward in what we now understand to be a long-term process of change.
Excellency Chair, ladies and gentlemen
The final topic is the MYIFF - the Multi-Year Indicative Financing Framework. I wish to thank all development partners who have provided their numbers.
By using the numbers in the Cambodia ODA Database for the remaining development partners, we are able to forecast the flows for 2010 and the subsequent two years. The number for 2010 is above 1 billion US Dollars and is of a similar order to the number derived from the ODA Database for the Aid Effectiveness Report.
The figures provided by development partners indicate continued strong support for the programmes and resource requirements indicated in the NSDP Update. By establishing this MYIFF exercise I believe we have demonstrated that by establishing such a process it can, over just a few years, become effective and useful in programming and budgeting - I am grateful to the development partners for their efforts to support this exercise, which for some I know has been difficult.
To promote predictability, we have also negotiated with development partners an aid effectiveness JMI that seeks to limit deviation on the aggregate MYIFF for the nexxt year to no more than ten per cent overall and for no more than 15 per cent for an individual development partner. I have been very encouraged by the efforts of all development partners to share data on aid, and for the efforts they have made to provide figures for the outer years, which I readily accept are only best estimates.
Excellency Chair, ladies and gentlemen
I am happy to take your questions, especially on any issues that remain in finalising the JMls. Otherwise I hope that we can finalise the JMls and all leave the meeting today understanding what must be done to prepare statements that can help to move to agreement at CDCF on key issues.
Otherwise, in the coming days, I hope we can quickly finalise the MYIFF and confirm the list of CDCF participants - please note that security arrangements will be tight for the CDCF so prior registration is essential to ensure smooth admittance on the day of the meeting.
This concludes my presentation, Mr Chairman. I hope that I have been able to clarify the process for preparing the CDCF as well as to wet your appetite for the sessions on aid effectiveness and the JMls - these concern us all, there should be significant scope for consensus and I trust that we will be able to build on the earlier sector and thematic session of the CDCF to ensure that our efforts to manage development assistance and achieve the JMls help us to address the objective of the CDCF - to align the Rectangular Strategy and NSDP so thhat we can achieve the development results to which we have all made a commitment
Thank you |
