National Dialogue on the Review of the Mid-term Implementation of National Strategic Development Plan 2019-2023

The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has invited civil society organizations (CSOs) to provide inputs to the National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) 2019-2023, which was developed in late 2018, and in this mid-term review CSOs have been seeking to participate. CSOs have been actively involved in working with policy-makers to be responsible for the effort in a transparent and inclusive ways in the progress of the review and evaluation. CSOs have expressed the goal of participating in the progress of NSDP implementation.

The full process of this mid-term review, there were 76 CSOs both national and international ones have been working and involved in providing inputs through the dialogues organized by NGOF and CCC.

As the result, we have drafted the summary of inputs to NSDP 2019-2023 mid-term review (as in attachment) in order to take a part into the implementation of the next mid-term. It is the purpose of our dialogue, which getting involved from government organization, development partners, private sectors, academic institutions and national and international CSOs.

This event is held on 26th November 2021 at Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra and via virtual meeting. The total participants were 169, and 63 among all joint physically.

This dialogue is conducted under the objectives: 1) to increase the awareness of the participants (Strategic Development Working Group, CSOs and Youth) in monitoring the implementation of NSDP 2019-2023 2) to provide opportunities for the participants to discuss with relevant ministries in reviewing on partnership and increasing cooperation mechanism in its implementation and monitoring.

Welcome Speech by Dr. Tek Vannara, Executive Director of NGO Form onCambodia

He greatly thanked all the participants, including representatives of ministries, institutions, CSOs, private sector and academic institution. He said that previously, the working group has organized the forums to meet the needs of the communities based on three main pillars: social development, economic development and environmental protection.

The incorporation of strategies into commune development plans will make the effective development underground. Under collaboration between the Ministry of Planning and filed-relevant CSOS in providing indicators is an opportunity for relevant institutions to propose priority areas. To make this involvement powerful, CSOs have been jointly conducting a research based on their areas to identify action plans, challenges for achieving the goals and indicators used for setting out in NSDP.

Relevant organizations can identify priority areas for making an improvement in the next two years and a half of implementation of the NSDP mid-term to respond to the actual situation. He strongly asked all representatives to provide feedbacks for today’s dialogue as an additional inputs for consideration for the next mid-term of NSDP.

Key Message from Mrs. Sin Putheary, Executive Director of the Cooperation Commission for Cambodia

In previous time, event thought in the period of Covid-19 pandemic, working group has collaborated and held in-depth discussions at both sub-national and national levels to make NSDP more comprehensive.

She has noticed that the three main pillars for proposing ideas/aspects into priority areas, including economy, society and environment. She has provided key messages and suggested to build a enable environment for CSOs. By the way, online learning she also found some interruption for the children from the class by Covid-19 since Cambodia still lack of learning tool support, especially in rural areas.

She also called for social protection for workers who are risked by social development. She proposed to put pressure on hard-skills training provision, especially local tourism service providers and introduce to new models to join in economic recovery. The discussion today will go in detailed all the activities or priority areas, which should be suggested or recommended into NSDP, so that everyone here were encouraged to raise up any idea/aspect related to our dialogue’s objective today.

Giving a Speech Mr. Khoun Theara, UNDP Cambodia representative He has mentioned that the main goal of this mid-term meeting is to focus on 1) linking with ministries, institutions and CSOs, 2) setting expenditure budget based on macro-economic for 2019-2023 and (3) estimating financial resources and mobilizing additional funds to achieve the goals set out in the action plan.

To review the progress of the ministries and institutions, it is necessary to review the results of the activity implementation. After getting inputs, representative institution will submit out to the Office of the Council of Ministers for reviewing at the beginning of 2022 in order to make NSDP become comprehensive. Presentation on the result of the review on NSDP mid-term implementation by Mr. Sok Somit, team leader of independent advisor

He has shown the scoping review, methodology, key challenges and proposed recommendation detailed as the following: i) The focus of scoping review 1) The existing framework of national plan for Cambodia • Sectoral National Development Plan • Sustainable Development Goal 2016-2030 • Vision of Cambodia 2050 • Scenarios for NSDP monitoring 2019-2023 • The 2019 NSDP report 2) Discussion of CSOs on Updated Progress of NSDP Mid-term Review 2019-2023 3) Conduction consultation workshops which got inputs from 76 CSOs

The Statement of Outcomes of the Dialogue and the Next Plan on Monitoring the Implementation of NSDP by the Ministry of Planning and CSOs/Communities.

The dialogue has produced some remarkable results, such as discussing on the digital labor market and additional strengthening domestic and foreign market and making taxes from private sector to contribute to the development of NSDP 2019-2023. Consideration on environmental protection through management of water resources in Cambodia, which is an activity to help in restoring irrigation system to support agricultural sector and able to export its production within the budget support from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) through developing strategies and policies that involve all relevant sectors and target groups. MEF has established a financial system to facilitate the provision of official information, tracking data of registrations of small and medium sized business and administrative coordination mechanisms to the citizens. Allocation of village and commune development budgets for infrastructure development and socially vulnerable groups (indigenous peoples, women, the disabled and the elder) in order to response to the goal of NSDP 2019-2023.

Strengthening the public services at the local level by disseminating new guidelines and procedures and any update to the citizens in a transparent and confident manner. The national digital policy is planned by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications towards the industrial revolution 4.0 to increase the accessibility to the public, private, civil society and community sectors such as 1) the provision and access to public services (save time and money), 2) participation in economic diversification for garment and construction workers who are vulnerable to socio-economic development; and 3) training provision and human resources capacity building in the digital sector, especially youth who are start-up-er.

Closing Remark by Mr. Kan Kal, Country Director of Diakonai Organization Mr. Kan Kal, Country Director of Daiconia, would like to thank the representatives of relevant institutions who participated in clarification and information provision as inputs used to improve the plan in the next NSDP mid-term. He also noted that representatives of relevant institutions agreed on the progress of the existing mid-term, which reflected to the joint-activities between the government and CSOs through jointly propose the next step and suggestions for consideration to ensure potential gaps will be fulfilled in the next mid-term. Finally, he hoped that annual dialogue on the progress of the NSDP implementation will be held on.