[Back]    [Home Page]

II - Participation and Partnership

The NGO community applauds the RGC for its efforts to share information with, and gather feedback from, stakeholders in relation to its drafting of the NPRS. It is hoped that this participatory approach will continue. The sharing of information and ideas leading to a prioritisation of poverty reduction measures will be essential if the NPRS is to be more than a report written for the benefit of donors. The complementary experience and expertise of all stakeholders needs to be shared and examined in order to best utilise development funding within Cambodia.

Role of Government

The Bretton Woods institutions have heralded the NPRS process as beginning a new chapter in nationally-led planning and reporting for poverty reduction.  NGOs have been pleased to see dedicated people in government willing to put considerable effort into the NPRS document and the subsequent Progress Report, as well as willing to accept input from NGOs.  The NPRS has led to more sharing of plans between government ministries and with NGOs and, as such, is seen as a positive step forward. 

At the same time, the NPRS process has placed strains on limited capacity and led to some duplication of existing reporting and planning processes.  Ownership of the NPRS, both the document and the process, appears to reside in a small group of government officials.  As an externally imposed system of planning and reporting, the NPRS process appears more as a process of reporting to donors than a system of national planning.  It has done little to solve existing weaknesses.  These include:

NGOs share with donors concern about the lack of clarity over the respective roles of the Progress Report team within the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the General Secretariat of the inter-ministerial Council for Social Development (GSCD) under the leadership of the Ministry of Planning.  NGOs observe that such lack of clarity can sometimes be exacerbated by the actions of donors.  However, this is not an issue that should detract from the hard work of, or credit given to, the people in both these institutions, and should be resolved by a higher level of government together with plans to strengthen the capacity and authority of the responsible institutions.  It is recognised that the GSCSD built up a momentum and expertise during the initial preparation of the NPRS that should not be lost, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance has always provided a strong analysis of economic and budgetary considerations.  An inter-ministerial approach with strong ownership and participation by the line ministries is essential to making the link between NPRS reporting and actual implementation.

The NPRS process needs to help identify priorities for the national budget and for donor support. As mentioned in the Introduction, a major problem with the NPRS is that it includes an Action Plan costing four or fives times more money than the government could ever expect to receive or manage effectively.  In 2003, the Ministry of Planning asked ministries to submit information on all their NPRS-related projects and plans in order that they could help prioritise the projects and align the NPRS matrix with the Public Investment Programme.  Requests for technical assistance to undergo this prioritisation exercise went unanswered.

NGOs believe that the NPRS Progress Report should not be a document written primarily to please the World Bank and IMF, or other donors.  The Progress Report should be primarily for Cambodians, to give feedback and guidance to government officials and development workers, and to inform policy makers, lawmakers and the public on progress in poverty reduction.  Its most important audiences may potentially include ministry staff, parliament members, development agencies and journalists.  The Progress Report needs to be readily available to the Cambodian public in the Khmer language.

NGOs call on government to define the planning process that best suits the Cambodian institutional and cultural context.  Existing planning processes need to be analysed to identify constraints and solutions.  Donors need to adjust their expectations to allow a Cambodian-led evolution of the planning process.

Role of donors

While encouraging the government to be in the “drivers seat”, donors have an important role in contributing to a long-term vision for Cambodia’s development.  Central to this vision must be the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.  Donors need to consider the level of external resources that will be needed to achieve this vision, and make a ten-year commitment to providing the level of assistance required.

This long-term commitment needs to be conditional on the RGC taking the necessary steps to efficiently utilise both external funding and its own resources.  Aid needs to be properly sequenced to respond realistically to capacity constraints.  Effective reforms in governance, administrative reform, judicial reform and strong anti-corruption measures are necessary prerequisites for effective aid delivery in many sectors.  Realistic benchmarks need to be set and agreed among all donors, the benchmarks need to be effectively monitored, and the implications of not reaching the benchmarks should be made clear.  Previous benchmarks need to be assessed before new commitments are made.

Presenting a collective vision and commitment to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals will require an improved level of donor coordination.  The revamping of the existing working groups to assist donor-government-NGO coordination is one positive sign that this may be possible.

It is essential that donors achieve a full understanding of existing planning processes, in order that the NPRS can be made more relevant to real decision-making. It is pre-emptive to introduce new planning processes until this is the case.  The NGO community is concerned that a large part of the focus of the NPRS preparation was an effort to make the document suitable for donor consumption. It is unfortunate that the NPRS document was drafted in English with a translation being made only at the final stage.  This approach was repeated in the preparation of the Annual Progress Report.  Clearly such an approach hampers the ability of a significant proportion of Cambodians, both in government and in civil society, to participate.

Role of NGOs and civil society

The NGO community welcomes its inclusion in the process of contributing to the NPRS and assessment of its progress. It strives to engage in this process in a positive manner offering a pro-poor, experience-led contribution both to debates surrounding poverty reduction and through its own poverty reduction activities.

NGOs, as development institutions, can contribute much to poverty reduction plans by sharing the observations and conclusions arising from their development experience.  NGOs, in their day-to-day duties, work closely with poor and vulnerable groups, and therefore are in a strong position to communicate the needs of these groups to decision-makers.

In Cambodia, an important tool for conveying NGO observations and concerns is the annual NGO Statement.  When, in 1993, NGOs attend the first meeting of the International Committee on the Reconstruction of Cambodia (ICORC), NGOs were able to provide donors a wealth of knowledge based on their previous 13 years of experience in Cambodia.  NGOs have since attended every Consultative Group meeting, and have each year presented a detailed statement on NGOs’ issues and recommendations for the development of Cambodia. 

NGOs also participate in various donor-government working groups.  However, in the past, some of these working groups did not include NGOs, while others did not include government.  It is understood that the new working groups will all include government, donors and NGOs.  NGO representation at CG meetings and working groups is effectively coordinated through cooperation between peak NGO membership organisations and an informal system of NGO sectoral groups.

NGOs also have close relations with Ministries in various sectors, which provide an opportunity for direct input into sectoral policy dialogue. For example, the MEDiCAM association of NGOs working in health liases closely with the Ministry of Health, while the NGO Education Partnership works closely with the Ministry of Education.  The NGOs’ Commune Council Support Project has an NGO Liaison Office located within the Ministry of Interior.

The RGC needs to consider a broadening of the discussion to include other groups within civil society. Those who have specific perspectives and needs in relation to poverty reduction such as ethnic minorities, trade unions and farmers associations, should be provided with an opportunity to be heard.

The question of wider civil society involvement in the NPRS process is difficult, since there has been less progress in this area.  The issue really is how concerns of the wider Cambodian population can feed into NPRS planning, implementation and monitoring.  The following are suggestions on how wider civil society participation could, over time, be enhanced:

In all these processes, the most critical factor is the participation of poor and vulnerable groups; that is, those people whom the poverty reduction strategy is intended to serve.

Role of the Private Sector

NGOs recognise the importance of the private sector in the development of a strong economy which will offer a more stable economic base of social service provision and increased job opportunities. The RGC needs to listen closely to the concerns of the private sector, especially in relation to the need to reduce business costs and uncertainty by reducing corruption and unnecessary bureaucratic constraints. All private sector operators need to be treated equally in order to provide a predictable level playing field for business activity,

At the same time, NGOs would hope that any efforts to make Cambodia more attractive to foreign investment are effectively balanced with the interests of the poor.  Tax concessions reduce the government revenue available for the social sector and should be strictly limited.  Local private sector operators and micro-enterprises should be seen as the core resources for economic growth and employment creation.  Assistance is needed to help local private sector operators overcome capacity and supply chain constraints.

While supported by a robust private sector, the public sector needs to take the lead in the provision of basic services, such as health and education, and in the regulation of private sector service provision, in order that the needs of Cambodians are properly fulfilled.

  [Top]     [Back]    [Home Page]