CDC - Minutes of the Third Meeting of the Partnership and Harmonization TWG on 4 July 2005

MINUTES OF THE THIRD MEETING
OF THE
PARTNERSHIP AND HARMONIZATION TWG
HELD ON
4 JULY 2005, 8:30 AM AT CDC

1. The meeting of the Partnership and Harmonization TWG (P&H TWG) was organized as the first session of the Workshop on Harmonisation and Alignment held on 4-5 July 2005 at the Council for the Development of Cambodia. It was attended by members of the P&H TWG and representatives from other ministries/agencies and development partners.

2. Mr. Chhieng Yanara, Chairman of the P&H TWG opened the meeting by welcoming all participants to the meeting. He said that the main agenda item of the meeting was a review of the progress that has been made by the Royal Government of Cambodia and development partners over the last six months (December 2004-May 2005) in implementing the Action Plan on Harmonisation and Alignment.

3. He made a presentation on the six month progress report of the P&H TWG that had been circulated to all participants. It is attached as Annex I.

4. He reported that, in general, almost all of the activities that were planned during the last six months have been completed, and Cambodia's report on progress towards enhanced aid effectiveness was presented by H.E. Senior Minister Keat Chhon at the Second High Level Forum (28 February-2 March 2005) in Paris.

5. In the presentation, he highlighted the following points:

Although a lot of activities are now underway, the work on the preparation of NSDP is somewhat behind schedule because of delays in the recruitment of an Advisor and putting in place technical and coordination structures needed for the preparation of the NSDP.
In the H&A Action Plan, it was envisaged that at least two sector programs will be prepared by June 2005. The PFM reform program has been agreed to and is now being implemented. Progress in preparing the Agriculture sector strategy is behind schedule.
To enhance understanding of government officials and donor personnel on SWAp and program based approaches, a seminar was organized by the P&H TWG for senior officials of ministries and donor representatives on concepts, features, and conditions of SWAp and Program Based Approaches on 9-10 June 2005 at CDC. SIDA provided the resource person and support for this workshop.
With respect to issue of RGC having one ODA coordinating body, he emphasized that CRDB/CDC is the focal point within the government for resource mobilization and aid coordination and it has been leading discussions on ODA planning as well as leading the process of preparation and monitoring of the implementation of RGC's H&A Action Plan.
There has been no organized effort by donors to provide periodic progress reports to RGC on their on-going harmonization and alignment efforts.
With respect to TWGs providing timely feedback on all sector capacity development proposals, there has been limited progress.
The work of preparing the National Operational Guidelines is slightly behind schedule and corrective actions are being taken to finalize a draft of the NOG for discussion.
There has been limited progress on donors providing CDC information on their ODA disbursements.

6. In the discussion that followed, Ms. Nisha Agrawal commented that there has been a lot of progress in the implementation of the H&A Action Plan. With regard to all donors giving CDC permission to freely disseminate information on ODA, she said that it is really disappointing to hear that some donors have indicated that it is on a case by case basis although we had agreed for the first time at the last CG meeting to put information on ODA on website. She said that this will be the topic for discussion at the next donor lunch meeting and promised that a clear answer will be given back as soon as possible. With respect to capturing information on the harmonization and alignment efforts of development partners, she suggested that the TWGs mechanism is an excellent process through which information can be captured.

7. In response, Mr. Yanara said that he is reporting the reality on the ground that CDC must seek permission from some development partners before posting ODA information on website. He said that this is an issue of mutual accountability and the Government would like some level of transparency on the part of development partners. Regarding information on harmonization and alignment, he said that the workshop shall consider Ms. Agrawal's suggestion and if the workshop agrees, a section on harmonization and alignment will be added to the quarterly progress report questionnaire.

8. The meeting adjourned at 10:00 am.