CDC - Presented by: Chhieng Yanara

6^th Consultative Group Meeting for Cambodia Phnom Penh, Cambodia, June 19-21, 2002 Session V: Summary of Discussions on Partnerships and Aid Coordination Presented by: Mr. Chhieng Yanara Secretary General, CDC/CRDB

I had made a presentation on, “Building Partnerships for Development: An Update” at the working session. My presentation started with a brief statement on the overall objectives of building partnerships as well as the principles and strategic implementation considerations. I outlined the RGC’s overall objective of building partnerships as the process that will provide further support to Cambodia’s sustainable socio-economic development with equity, to reduce poverty by promoting partnership model of development cooperation, based on Cambodian leadership, ownership, and accountability, in order to increase resource mobilization and to effectively use these scarce resources. I had also highlighted the principles and strategic implementation considerations for building partnerships that were presented in RGC’s working paper on “A New Development Cooperation Paradigm for Cambodia” as well as the Government’s report at the CG Meeting in Tokyo last year. I also reported on progress that has been made. The establishment of, an Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee to Strengthen Development Partnerships, headed by the 1^st Vice-chairman of CDC, whose membership consists of senior officials in-charge of Partnership arrangements. The main objective of this Committee is to ensure that key officials are involved in policy decisions and operational actions for capacity development, integration/ enhancement of information and monitoring systems, and for assessing progress and identifying issues during the transition to fully functioning development partnerships. The Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee is supported by a Secretariat that is located in CDC/CRDB. Partnership Working Groups have also been established in four ministries, Health, Education, Agriculture, and Women and Veteran Affairs. I, however, had also pointed out that there are still some problems that have to be overcome to fully develop partnerships within the Government administrative structure, particularly the issue of overlaps in the roles and responsibilities of some central ministries/agencies that still needs to be reviewed as part of the Administrative Reforms. In the presentation I had pointed out that over the last decade RGC has successfully built many partnerships with its external partners, private sector, NGOs, and the civil society. I regard the CG Meeting process in itself as a successful partnership building mechanism. Many examples of successful partnerships with external partners were highlighted, such as the Seila Program and the development programs for the education and health sectors where sector-wide management (SWIM) approach has become the starting point for piloting partnership arrangements. At present, these partnerships are at various stages of development. Under the Seila Program, the partnership arrangements cover all aspects of the program cycle from joint planning, programming, budgeting, to the management of the implementation of the Program. The RGC now would like to extend this partnership arrangement to include the monitoring of the implementation of the Seila Program. In the case of Education and Health sectors, the partnership arrangements are not as advanced. So far, RGC has succeeded in building partnerships to carryout joint planning and programming for these sectors. We hope that the spirit of partnership will continue to prevail and guide the work in these two critical sectors as we begin to look at the budgeting/financing and implementation issues. I had pointed out that forging effective partnerships with external partners has been a challenge and RGC is asking for the support of its development partners to move ahead. To strengthen partnerships with external partners, the RGC has proposed the immediate adoption of the following two mechanisms that will enable the Government and its partners to jointly examine the issues and to develop appropriate approaches for building meaningful and effective partnerships: First, the establishment of a Government-Donor Partnership Working Group under the CG mechanism that will take the responsibility for examining the issues and recommending measures to improve the current situation. It can begin work immediately by beginning to examine the options for adopting: a harmonized approach for capacity development, joint missions, joint program formulation, long-term commitments by donors, and flexible program/project designs; with an ultimate long-term goal of achieving full harmonization of the rules and procedures among external partners. The second mechanism that the Government has proposed concerns the UN system. The UNDAF for Cambodia has been prepared under the umbrella of which each UN agency has prepared its country program for Cambodia. At present, reviews of individual agency’s country programs are carried out with these country programs as the benchmark. The RGC has proposed that instead of having separate reviews of each UN agency’s country program, it would like to see a joint review session under the UNDAF umbrella, in which all UN agencies and Government ministries/agencies will participate at the same time. It was pointed out that such a joint review has many advantages. First, it will reduce burden on the Government, especially given its limited capacities. Second, it will help minimize duplication. Third, and even more importantly, the joint review will ensure that information about “who is doing what” is shared both within the Government as well as the UN System agencies. In conclusion, I would like to note that in view of the important role that ODA plays in supporting Cambodia’s development programs, the RGC wants to build strong partnerships to ensure that the available ODA is utilized in a manner that maximizes its benefits in furthering Cambodia’s development efforts. The RGC wants to enter this process of strengthening partnerships with an open mind to examine all feasible options through a transparent and accountable collaborative effort. We know where we want to go, and would like to work with our external partners through an open and frank consultative and collaborative process to begin to outline how to get there. On the Government side, additional details on the partnership arrangements in the education and health sectors were also provided by the Ministries of Education and Health. These initiatives to develop sector-wide management approach are concrete examples of Government-led initiatives to work in full partnership. The NGO representative emphasized the need for the RGC to develop guidelines and procedures for the participation of stakeholders from the civil society to be applied in all projects to strengthen national partnerships. On the donor side, UNDP presented a “Partnership Concept Paper” that provides a review of the new global partnership paradigm, basic values inherent in ODA, some global lessons learned, development management issues relevant to building partnerships in Cambodia, and a number of specific proposals to strengthen the partnerships. The proposals cover a broad range of issues related to: policy coordination, pooling of resources, and harmonization of donor procedures. This paper can serve as a starting point for the work of the proposed Government-Donor Partnership Working Group. On the Whole, there was overwhelming support from the external partners for the two proposals put forward by the RGC. On behalf of the UN system, the UN Resident Coordinator agreed to support the Government proposal. She will inform the Secretary General’s Office and review the details of the proposal with her UN Colleagues in Cambodia. The WB Co-Chairman suggested that we should try to outline the “Terms of Reference” for the Government-Donor Partnership Working Group. The RGC would like to suggest that given the limited time available during the CG Meeting for the preparation of the TORs, a decision should be made to establish the proposed Government-Donor Partnership Working Group that can begin by developing the terms of reference, rules and procedures for its operations, as soon as possible. It can also immediately begin to examine issues and to develop an action plan to resolve problems for which feasible solutions can be agreed to and implemented. The RGC would also like to propose that this working Group should be Co-Chaired by one representative of the bi-laterals and one representative of the multi-laterals and the Government. The Secretary General of CDC/CRDB in his capacity as the Secretary General of the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee to Strengthen Partnerships will serve as the Government Co-Chair. It is also recommended that the size of this Working Group be kept small to ensure maximum efficiency. The RGC would appreciate if the nomination of donor Co-Chairs is finalized during this meeting.