Minute of the 15th P&H TWG Meeting

Minute of the 15^th P&H TWG Meeting

on 17 September 2009 at CDC

H.E. Chhieng Yanara, Secretary General of CRDB/CDC and Chairman of the Partnership & Harmonization TWG Meeting welcomed all participants to the meeting. In his opening remarks, he raised the objective of the meeting which is to review and discuss a number of issues that were included in our 2009 Work plan. One of the guiding principles when we developed the work plan was that we need to be responsive to sector priorities and challenges which require us to address it collectively.

Topic for substantive discussion

1. Aid Effectiveness JMIs

H.E. Chair mentioned that the Aid Effectiveness JMIs has been developed based on the need to accelerate the implementation of Aid Effectiveness commitment included in the AAA and as a response to the national experience that identify the need to be more prioritized and more focused on fewer actions at the sector level. The JMIs priority falls under three broad teams which are strengthening element of PBAs, capacity development and the use of national system, and mutual accountability.

After a comprehensive discussion, DPs committed to continue working on respective areas but they needed more time to adjust and simplify their works. They recommended that it is extremely useful to have a list of constraint coming back from the 16 groups of TWGs so that they can look at the solution to those constraints and collectively overcome as they are trying to further integrate, harmonize and simplify the work they are doing. At the same time, Ms. Rebecca Carter, representative of the World Bank, noted that the PSD TWG is not reported on the development of trade SWAP, the partnership and joint partnership arrangement.

With regards to the JMIs for CDCF meeting, Mr. Philip Courtnadge, CDC Senior Advisor, mentioned that CDC proposed to do JMIs managing for result training in November this year to look at and explore how it might be improved in the future with view of the third CDCF meeting in May or June next year. So, in early 2010 when RGC and DPs begin to review and develop the new JMI, TWG secretariats and DP counterparts will have skill to produce the high quality set of JMI next time which could be more close to match the AE work.

In conclusion, H.E. Chair sought stronger support from DPs who are active in the sector or in the TWGs. In reply to the World Bank, he reported that CDC will incorporate some additional comments on the PSD especially on the SWAPs on trade facilitation and check with our colleagues whether we receive any report from the PSD TWG or not. He also noted that PSD TWG has its steering committees and many sub steering committees; however, it does not have structure. So, support from DPs is needed for this TWG.

2. NSDP Extension (2009-2013)

H.E. Chair explained that the Ministry of Planning (MOP) is working to update NSDP according to the decision of the Royal Government till 2013. CDC has been requested to provide inputs on development cooperation and partnership. So far, we have drafted and it has four priorities such as strengthening the CDCF mechanism and possible to include private sector; ensuring effective GDCC and TWG partnership; working with NGOs; and implementing AAA. Therefore, in order to ensure good consultation, he requested comment from DPs and TWGs to be submitted by 30 September 2009. In this regards, DPs promised to submit their comments to CDC/CRDB on the due date.

Topics for briefing and updates

3. Making Partnerships Effective initiative

H.E. Chair mentioned that we just had meeting in Siem Reap last week. The workshop was organized for 35 government ministry’s officials and 30 DPs. The meeting considered the approach to partnership and the new skill that can help to make TWGs and other arrangement more effective for all of us. We have learned the skill and tools, so the next step is all TWGs and DPs are requested to reflect their own partnership and to consider what measures must be taken to strengthen their own partnership. They have to identify their needs such as working more closely together to identify common approaches, training and learning from other TWGs. CDC/CRDB will look at possibility to facilitate and support their needs and priority.

DPs mentioned that this was very good initiative that we spend time together and raise issues that we face. For the next stage, they suggested to make this an annual event to recap and learn from our experiences with the participants from government and DP representatives. In response to the points, H.E. Chair said CDC would consider an annual event but it can happen only after the phase 4 of this exercise completed.

4. Priority projects

For this section, H.E. Chair explained that the report is not finalised as new information was still being recieved, so the discussion should focus on the process. He suggested all participants to discuss and comment on three important issues.

First issue, has this been useful exercise in enabling an effective and coordinated sector response to the economic downturn and challenges that present for stimulating growth, protecting livelihood and strengthening social safety net? This exercise contributes to this objective or not;

Second issue, has the cost in term of collecting data, reporting as well as analysis being outweighed by the benefit at the sector level in term of facilitating dialogue and responding to immediate priorities;

Third issue, has this exercise contributed to the wider aid management and effectiveness effort that we identified at the last GDCC meeting or not, in particular has this exercise facilitated dialogue, turned attention to systematic issue or program management and partnership that it requires to achieve a higher level of development result.

After a comprehensive discussion, all DPs agreed that the exercise is useful to respond to the impact of the economic crisis and it is crucial to understand the process and monitor whether the disbursement is on track and how much each sector has disbursed even though the result is not known yet and more effort and time are needed. It was also agreed that some projects should be selected for the exercise to monitor its disbursement whether planned disbursement meets with actual disbursement or not and if not, why?

5. Paris Declaration survey 2010

H.E. Chair mentioned that the next round survey of PD will be done in 2011 for the 2010 data. So, the consolidated report on PD Survey will be presented or submitted to the HLF 4 that will be held in Seoul, South Korea in October 2011. For this survey, we need support from DPs before end-2009 especially the indicators of aid predictability and aid reported on budget tio use as the baseline for collecting data at the end of 2010. The data will be also used for the preparation of 2010 national budget.

With regards to the mission and analytical work/studies, we have created a system associated with ODA Database for DPs to enter the data with the same password and it is being tested to ensure its proper work. The system is very simple andand will be useful for coordinating and planning missions as well as for the next round of PD survey to count missions or analytical work for the 2010 period.

6. Workplan (progress to date)

H.E. Chair mentioned that on the work plan of our TWGs, a one page report reflects progress made against the work plan that we agreed in early 2009. It reflects the progress made against each activity.

Topics for information sharing

7. Information sharing

a). CRDB Website

H.E. Chair raised that we are now at the final stage to finalise our new CRDB Website. This new website will be launched very soon with the same address. All the existing information that is on the current website will be automatically transferred to the new website with an improved structure and more user-friendly access. It includes all existing information on projects, event, GDCC and CDCF meeting.

b). NGO Database

H.E. Chair mentioned that at the same time we are finalising the NGO online-database as part of CDC/CRDB database. He requested DPs to encourage NGOs who receive fund or support from DPs to provide information and enter data to NGO online-database. He mentioned that for NGOs who operate in Cambodia based on their own resources, we will contact directly with those NGOs to train them and encourage them to enter and provide information through this NGO Database and so far we have conducted a series of technical training on utilizing of NGO online-database to NGOs, which their office is based in Phnom Penh and then extend to province.

c). JMI training for TWGs (November)

H.E. Chair brought to the members' attention that JMIs training for TWGs will be a 3-day workshop to be organised soon for result based management linked to the formulation and the monitoring of JMIs. He added this is the proposition for the preparation of JMIs for the next CDCF meeting that we planned to be held in mid 2010. So, this is the training for secretariat and also for a DP of each TWG. He confirmed that we planned to do this in mid November and DPs are encouraged to join this training.

d). Paris Declaration Evaluation- regional meeting (26-28 October)

H.E Chair raised that Cambodia will participate in the PD evaluation. Cambodia will host the regional workshop on PD evaluation in Siem Reap in October. 9 countries will be invited to participate and each country, there will be two government officials and one representative of DPs community of the country. However, he expressed his concern that DFID will not longer play the role of co-facilitator for P&H TWG and Mr. Dylan Gelard, UNDP's focal point, will leave the country soon. Therefore, he requested a representative from bilateral donors to play the role of co-lead facilitator for this TWG. In this regards, Mr. Scheuer confirmed that UNDP are pleased to continue its role and UNDP is already recruiting a full time staff to replace Mr. Gelard. So, there will be a small transition period.

H.E. Chair expressed grateful thanks to Mr. Scheuer for his firm commitment to continue to play the role of co-lead facilitator of P&H TWG. He also sought interest from Sweden to take over the role of co-facilitator for P&H TWG but the representative of Sweden said that they are not sure about their capacity and they will reply back to CDC/CRDB after the meeting.

e). Secretary General’s speech to meeting in Berlin (June 2009)

H.E. Chair raised that he was invited to Berlin in June to the workshop organized by (BMZ)-the Ministry of International Cooperation- and the topic of the meeting was to look at beyond the 2010 implementation of the Paris Declaration. He made a presentation on Cambodian views and approaches how to deal with the AE beyond 2010. His paper has addressed specifically on aid fragmentation in Cambodia and from the government’s view how aid fragmentation in Cambodia can be addressed in the future. He requested for comment on his paper as it was only CDC’s views and it will set out the direction in the future on AE activity in Cambodia.

However, there was no comment on that so the meeting was closed at nearly 5:00 pm and H.E. Chair expressed his thanks to all participants who spend valuable time to attend this meeting to discuss activity related to AE priority as well as the preparation for the forthcoming GDCC meeting on 29 September. At the same time, he thanked Mr. Dylan Gelard for the excellent job he had done, especially for CDC.