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Session IV Endorsement of the 2010 Joint Monitoring Indicators
Delivered by Ms. Elena Tischenko, UNDP Country Director On behalf of Development Partners at the 3rd CAMBODIA DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION FORUM Phnom Penh, June 3, 2010
Excellency Keat Chhon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of Development Partners to the Royal Government of Cambodia, I am pleased to deliver this statement on Joint Monitoring Indicators (JMIs). JMIs have served not only to jointly achieve NSDP and sector priorities, they have also contributed to strengthening partnerships between Royal Government of Cambodia and Development Partners. We are therefore pleased to be able to endorse this new set of JMIs to cover the period to the end of 2011. Progress in implementing the 2008 JMIs On behalf of Development Partners, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly reflect on past JMI progress and performance with the intention of contributing to the successful implementation of the 2010-2011 joint indicators. Although 2008 and 2009 were marked by a number of challenges, overall, the JMI progress report and the 2010 Aid Effectiveness Report demonstrate positive progress towards achieving the 2008 JMI targets. I would like to note some of these significant achievements:
The Government’s 2010 Aid Effectiveness Report also identified that in many areas efforts have been made but there is still a way to go before progress is completely achieved. In particular efforts are still ongoing with some way to go in the areas of forestry, judicial reform, land, mine action and road maintenance. Due to the complexity of the sectoral multi-stakeholder partnerships, we see that implementation challenges remain for both Development Partners and Government. Issues raised include limited inter-ministerial coordination, overambitious targets, weak baselines, low development partner harmonization and alignment, inadequate resources, and lack of capacity. We welcome comments from the Royal Government of Cambodia on how efforts to strengthen results-based management, with a focus on outcomes, and partnerships can improve areas where progress has been limited.
In order to strengthen partnerships with Government, we welcome the next stage of the ‘Making Partnerships Effective in Cambodia’ initiative and look forward to Government’s guidance of how Development Partners can best support this exercise.
Welcoming the focus on results-based management We welcome the increased attention given to the JMIs and appreciate the efforts of the Royal Government to ensure that they are linked to achieving development results across all sectors and reform areas. The approach that has been adopted in developing these new JMIs reinforces linkages between ‘managing for development results’ and the ‘mutual accountability’ principles of our partnership. We do need to become much more sensitive to the results of our work, and we recognize that only by working together in a partnership that is based on mutual accountability can we each expect to achieve the level of ambition that is required. There is commendable overall progress on presentation and quality in the JMIs but at the same time the JMI outputs vary widely as to how ambitious they are. It is important that CRDC/CDC continues to provide leadership and guidance to the TWGs to ensure consistency in framing and monitoring the JMIs. In addition the CDC-supported results-based management training to technical working groups (TWGs) was very useful and provides a platform for further support to contextualizing and rolling out the principles and techniques of results-based management within the TWGs. Development Partners encourage the use of the Managing for Development Results approach to underpin all sector work, not just JMIs. We welcome guidance from Royal Government of Cambodia on how efforts to strengthen results-based management will continue.
Review of monitoring mechanism to strengthen implementation By strengthening the implementation and monitoring of JMIs, we can improve efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in our common pursuit of national development goals. Development Partners agree with previous statements made by the Government that we must work together to strengthen joint monitoring, not only for the JMIs, but in all of our cooperation with Government. We agree with Government that there is room for improvement in the current aid coordination structure and instruments. There are NSDP priorities that either i) cut across and involve multiple ministries and/or agencies or ii) do not fit within the existing TWGs’ sector or thematic focus. This is a long-standing issue that Government and Development Partners have raised during the 2006 review of the GDCC and TWGs, and discussed at the 2nd CDCF. As a result, areas such as extractive industries, economic land concessions, protection of indigenous people’s lands prior to registration, and people living with disabilities, for instance, are not effectively covered or supported by the current architecture. These issues that are not captured by the routine monitoring of JMIs do not have a structure to ensure maintained focus and effort on achieving development results. Constructive dialogue has been achieved in some of these areas (e.g. dialogue between the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority and the informal working group on oil and gas). Some of the areas have been effectively supported by commitments made at the 2008 CDCF (e.g. on strengthening social protection). Other areas have less monitoring support (e.g. there is currently no home in the TWG structure for maintained dialogue on economic land concessions). It is the role of the GDCC to agree on and track progress of the JMIs and raise issues (with JMIs or other areas) that cannot be resolved at the technical level. However, the current GDCC structure does not allow for a comprehensive joint monitoring mechanism to track progress and take decisions on critical actions. The Royal Government is assured of the constructive partnership with Development Partners in making the GDCC an effective mechanism for supporting JMI implementation and monitoring. We would welcome the opportunity to explore ways to strengthen the partnership framework for NSDP policy priorities currently not served by the TWG-JMI mechanism. Decisions taken on such issues at the 2008 CDCF helped support monitoring and progress on a number of them. The monitoring of 2010 CDCF follow-up decisions could be further developed to enable increased support. A useful next step could be a short exercise to review current dialogue processes and progress on identified issues, and agree on how monitoring can be strengthened, with a report back on progress at the next CDCF and monitored by the GDCCs. An important principle will be to ensure that monitoring of CDCF decisions and follow-up on such issues is complementary to the JMIs and does not detract from the JMIs. Development Partners welcome Government guidance on how to strengthen monitoring to support progress on policy priorities not within the TWG-JMI mechanism. We would welcome the opportunity to explore ways to strengthen the high-level focus of the GDCC to address issues that fall outside the parameters of individual JMIs, while also strengthening its ability to provide robust monitoring of the JMIs.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our formal endorsement of the 2010 JMIs. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the role of H.E. Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon for his role in supporting the JMIs in the GDCC, and to thank H.E. Chhieng Yanara of CDC as well as all TWG Chairs with whom the JMIs were negotiated, for their commitment to strengthening the impact of our work. We are committed to working with the Royal Government of Cambodia, to ensure successful implementation and effective monitoring. Thank you. |