Government-Donor Partnership Working Group
Sub-Working Group No.3

Foreword

At the 4th CG Meeting in May 2000, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) had launched "A New Development Cooperation Partnership Paradigm for Cambodia". The purpose was to engage our external partners, NGOs, and national stakeholders in a meaningful dialogue to move Cambodia forward to a new paradigm for development cooperation through enhanced partnerships. This new paradigm has as its foundation the principles that are being advocated by OECD/DAC and in other international arena to improve the effectiveness of development cooperation programs.

Since then, the Royal Government and its development partners have made significant progress in translating the new paradigm into practice. In addition to the Working Groups, under the CG mechanism that have been established since 1999, the RGC and its external partners agreed at the 6th CG Meeting held in 2002 to establish a Government-Donor Partnership Working Group. The mandate of this Working Group is to examine issues related to Government-Donor Partnerships and make recommendations to strengthen the partnerships, and to report on progress made at both the CG and the Post-CG Meetings. As part of its initial efforts, this Working Group decided in early 2003 to commission three studies to collect and analyze the necessary background information to begin to tackle the harmonization issues. Sub-Working Groups (SWG) consisting of Government and development partner's representatives were formed to facilitate and guide the work of the study teams on each of the following three studies:

It is my pleasure to present a report of the study on Practices and Lessons Learned in the Management of Development Cooperation—Case Studies in Cambodia. The study was carried out by a Japanese Team under the overall supervision of Dr. Char Meng Chuor (Ministry of Health) and Mr. Sam Sereyrath (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport), the Co-chairs of the SWG. The SWG held three meetings in July, October and November 2003 to articulate the scope of the study and discuss the contents of the draft reports. The concerned Government ministries and agencies as well as all members of the Partnership Working Group were invited for the SWG meetings and asked to provide feedback at each stage of the preparation of this Report. Finally, the report was reviewed and approved at a meeting of the Government-Donor Partnership Working Group held on 23 January 2004 at the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC).

I believe this Report is an important resource to further advance the new paradigm for development cooperation in Cambodia. Based on in-depth case studies of good practices in Cambodia, it has identified relevant and effective approaches to enhance development cooperation in the context of Cambodia as well as presented specific recommendations and actions. I am convinced that the recommendations offer solid basis for further discussions on developing an "action plan" that both the RGC and its development partners can agree on to move forward to further strengthen government-donor partnerships.

Last, but not least, on behalf of all the members of the Partnership Working Group and in my capacity as the Chairman, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Japan, in particular H.E. Mr. Katsuhiro Shinohara, Minister of the Embassy of Japan and H.E. Mr. Juro Chikara-ishi, Resident Representative of JICA Cambodia Office, who provided generous support for the preparation of this report. My thanks are also extended to all government and donors agencies, especially the members of the SWG, namely Canada, France, Japan, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WHO, who have shared their valuable time and have facilitated and guided the work on this study.