National Planning Processes and Policy Frameworks - What Role for Civil Society and What Role for UNDP -

1
National Planning Processes and Policy
Frameworks- What Role for Civil Society and What
Role for UNDP -

• Designed by Geoffrey D. Prewitt
• Poverty Reduction and Civil Society
  Advisor
• Central and Eastern African Sub-Regional
  Facility
• Kenya JPO Meeting 27 May

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Global Context

• 1.2 billion survive on less than 1 a day
• 841 million hunger and food insecure
• 1.1 billion have no access to safe water
• 113 million children not enrolled in school
• 515,000 women die of pregnancy related causes
• 11 million children die under age 5
• 36.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS (95 in
  developing countries)

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National development planning relationships
with donor instruments
CCA
Situation Assessment and Analysis
National Development Poverty Plan
UNDAF CAS Other donor assistance plans
Annual PRSP Reports MDG Reports
Monitoring Implementation Impact
Resource Allocation Aid Coordination
Implementation
Country Programmes and Projects
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Presentation Content

• The CCA/UNDAF, the PRSP, and the MDGs
• What is the Relationship?
• The Role of UNDP and CSOs

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CCA/UNDAF

• TOOLS OF UN REFORM AND PLANNING

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• ...The CCA and UNDAF should be related to
  assisting Government in implementing the
  Millennium Declaration. All should be assessed
  against the impact they have on reaching those
  targets

Source Operational Activities of the United
Nations for International Development
Cooperation Progress in the Implementation of
the UNDAF, Section 145, General Assembly, 56th
session ECOSOC resolution A/56/70 - E/2001/58 14
May 2001
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CCA
Assessment
Analysis
UNDAF
Action
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Lessons from the preparation of other CCA/UNDAFs

• Need to link and/or harmonize the CCA/UNDAF with
  other policy and programming frameworks such as
  PRSPs
• Establishment of multi-dimensional appreciation
  of human poverty as entry point
• Importance of MDGs
• Transboundry matters and acknowledgement of
  exogenous factors (including ODA flows)
• Role of other actors (particularly requirement of
  engaging civil society in the design,
  implementation, and monitoring process)
• Need for resource-mobilization

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Lessons from the preparation of other
CCAs/UNDAFs (continued)

• Avoid false expectations, the UN agencies'
  programmes should be realistic and coincide with
  national development priorities and correct needs
  assessment
• Link between priorities and measurable outputs
  (and establishment of subsequent indicators) -
  annexes found in the Zimbabwean and Kenyan
  UNDAF's provide a useful prototype
•  

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Interesting Country Examples

• Burkina Faso has developed a strategic
  communication and public information program
• The Congo-Brazzaville Country Team devised an
  innovative approach applying the basic principles
  of CCA, CAP and UNDAF in one single document,
  called the "UN Plan"
• the Heads of UN Agencies in Somalia outlined the
  practical principles, their programmatic
  implications, and the actions to be taken by the
  UN operational agencies
• highly participatory UNDAF process was reported
  by Mauritius

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THE PRSP
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Generic Perceptions on the PRSP - Lessons Thus
Far -

• Attributes of a Strong PRSP
• Opportunities
• Shortcomings

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Core Principles of the PRSP

• country-driven, involving broad-based
  participation by civil society and the private
  sector in all operational steps
• results-oriented, and focused on outcomes that
  would benefit the poor
• comprehensive in recognizing the multidimensional
  nature of poverty, but also
• prioritized so that implementation is feasible,
  in both fiscal and institutional terms
• partnership-oriented, involving coordinated
  participation of development partners (bilateral,
  multilateral, and non-governmental)
• based on a long-term perspective for poverty
  reduction

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Attributes of a Strong PRSP(compiled from
country experience)

• Nationally owned and developed through a broad
  and deep participatory and consultative process
  from the beginning of the exercise
• Long term perspective or focus
• Analytically sound premised on national poverty
  reduction objectives
• Full information disclosure
• Resources explicitly earmarked for poor and
  marginalized groups
• Integrated macro-economic, structural, sectoral
  and social considerations

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Attributes of a Strong PRSP(compiled from
country experience) - CONTINUED

• Gender and environmentally sensitive
• Assigned roles of stakeholders
• Built upon instructive experiences and work to
  date
• Integrated into national planning and budgetary
  system
• Causal relationship between public actions and
  poverty reduction
• Sound monitoring and evaluation criteria and
• Cost effective.

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Opportunities and Shortcoming

• Opportunities
• Focus on Poverty Reduction
• National Ownership/ Multi-Stakeholder
  Consultation
• Comprehensive
• Political Process

• Shortcomings
• Macro-economic Bias
• Bank/Fund Board approval Process vs. Product or
  Speed vs. Quality
• Inconsistency between priorities and measurable
  benchmarks
• Exposure of national sensitivities

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Principles of Participation in the PRSP

• Outcome Orientation
• Inclusion
• Feasibility
• Ownership
• Transparency
• Sustainability
• Effectiveness and Efficiency

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Stages of the PRSP Process (Contents of this
slide adapted from World Bank PRSP Source Book)
How Participatory processes can help  
Stage 1 Analytical and Diagnostic Work Research
to deepen the understanding of poverty and
reflect the diversity of experiences according
to gender, age, ethnic or regional groups, and
so forth.
Participatory Poverty Assessments can supplement
conventional data gathering and capture the
multi-dimensional nature of poverty and
different groups needs.
Participatory Analysis of the poverty reduction
impact of public expenditure can generate deeper
understanding than analysis by officials and
experts only.
Stage 2 Formulation of the strategy Analysis of
the poverty reduction impact of a range of public
expenditure options. Identification of public
actions which will have the most impact on
poverty.  
Negotiation between different national
stakeholders over priorities can lead to broader
ownership and more widely accepted consensus.
Also important is public approval, reach through
extensive consultation between civil society
representatives and their constituencies. Though
non-binding, this is vital for broadening
ownership and making the PRSP truly
participatory.
Stage 3 Approval Approval at the country level,
then formal approval by the World Bank and IMF
Boards. At this point, debt relief and / or
concessional loans become available
Negotiation of roles and responsibilities with
civil society can help generate agreed standards
for performance, transparency and accountability.
Stage 4 Implementation Agreement on roles and
responsibilities with government And service
providers at the local level. Monitoring
implementation. Feedback to revise the strategy
and enhance its future effectiveness.  
Participatory research can enhance peoples
awareness of their rights and strengthen the
poors claims.  
Feed Back To Next phase
Participatory monitoring of effectiveness of
policy measures, public service performance and
budgeting can contribute to efficiency and
empowerment of the poor.
Stage 5 Impact Assessment Retrospective
evaluation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy to
derive lessons for subsequent versions.
Participatory evaluation can bring to bear the
perceptions of actors at different levels and
their experience of the strategy.  
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THE MDGs
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Millennium Development Goals and Select Targets

• 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Halve the proportion of people with less than a
  dollar a day.
• Halve the proportion of people who suffer from
  hunger.
• 2. Achieve universal primary education
• Ensure that boys and girls alike complete primary
  schooling
• 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
• Eliminate gender disparity at all levels of
  education.
• 4. Reduce child mortality
• Reduce by two thirds the under-five mortality
  rate.

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Millennium Development Goals (contd)

• 5. Improve maternal health
• Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality
  ratio.
• 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
• 7. Ensure environmental sustainability
• 8. Develop a global partnership for development

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Why are the MDGs Important

• Faltering progress of socio-economic development
  and growth
• Global agreement/campaign
• Global and national reporting
• Time-bound and outcome/results oriented
• Improved, long-term monitoring
• Focus on people/cross-cutting
• Achievable but will require concerted action from
  all stakeholder through partnerships, including
  increased resourcing

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MDG Reporting

• Global reporting annually led by UN-DESA to
  General Assembly with comprehensive report every
  5 years
• Country-level reporting led by UNCT through
  production of periodic MDG reports (MDGRs)
• Advocacy tool for stimulating debate and
  mobilising resources
• Intended to be reader-friendly
• MDGRs help provide a focus to national
  development debate and mobilise UNCT around
  concrete and common development agenda

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The Relationship Between Instruments and Planning
Processes
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MDGs and NHDRs/CCAs/UNDAFs/PRSPs

• NHDRs provide the appropriate data/baseline
  information to measure progress/regression
• MDGs provide a core and common development focus
  for CCAs/UNDAFs
• Indicators used for tracking MDGs are a sub-set
  of those in 2002 revised CCA Indicator Framework
• MDGs can be used as entry point for UN engagement
  in PRSPs and enhance social sector focus
• Use of MDGs in CCAs/UNDAFs and PRSPs helps give
  momentum to ensuring provision of basic social
  services targeted towards poorest

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Relationship with the NHDR

• NHDR promotes people-centered development much
  like the focus of the MDGs
• NHDRs are analytical and/or policy documents and
  progress toward reaching the MDGs should be
  included in annually produced NHDRs
• NHDRs are depositories of up-to-date and
  disaggregated country level data and can be used
  to monitor progress of MDGs
• Note beware of data discrepancies

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Relationship with the CCA and UNDAF

• The UN Country Team may propose using the CCA
  process as a basis for monitoring success toward
  the MDGs and preparation of the MDGR, with the
  agreement and/or full participation of the
  government.
• The MDGR and the CCA focus on similar national
  and global goals, targets and indicators and
  both aim to support the development of
  sustainable statistical systems and the skills to
  analyse and use data for policy-making and
  programming.
• The UNDAF is a planning tool, such as the PRSP,
  to assist the UNCT to achieving the MDGs.

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Relationship with the PRSP

• For the PRSPs, the MDGs can be used as an entry
  point for UN engagement to enhance social sector
  focus. Essentially, the data from the MDG
  reports and an analysis of their policy
  implications can help balance PRSPs which are
  currently heavily macro-economic in focus.
• It is also possible that in-between the
  preparation of periodic MDGRs, the Annual
  Progress Report on the PRSPwhich will be
  increasingly available in HIPC and IDA
  countriescan be used as a tool for interim
  monitoring of progress towards the MDGs. This
  implies that the PRSP takes the MDGs into
  consideration and that the preparation of such
  Annual Reports will actively involve the UN
  country team and other partners.

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The Role of UNDP and CSOs
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Setting the Context for Civil Society Involvement
in the PRSP and other National Planning
Instruments

• All actors need to be clear about the expected
  level of civil society involvement
• CSO participation should be made a priority and
  commitment built to it within the UN and civil
  society
• Training, support and appropriate tools should be
  provided to UN Country Teams on participatory
  processes
• Timeframes for the PRSP should be revised, and
  sufficient resources allocated to support a
  participatory process
• Maximum use should be made of civil society
  inputs to consultation processes by permitting
  their influence on a number of policy processes

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Setting the Context for Civil Society Involvement
in the PRSP(continued)

• All actors need to be clear about the expected
  level of civil society involvement
• Commitment and capacity for engagement in the
  PRSP should be built among national CSOs
• Civil society expertise should be fully utilised,
  to improve both the process and product of the
  PRSP
• Accountability structures specific to CSO
  participation in the PRSP should be developed
  within the UN system (including the BWIs) and
• Participatory processes ensured to be inclusive
  and representative.

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Potential Areas of UNDP Support to Civil Society
and other Partners(adapted from draft UNDP
Policy Note on the PRSP)

• The Process
• Promoting Regional/Country Ownership through
  Institutional and Policy Coherence and UN Country
  Support
• Fostering Participation of Multiple Stakeholders
• Monitoring and Indicators
• Resource Mobilization

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Potential Areas of UNDP Support

• The Content
• Policy Options (pro-poor, pro-gender,
  pro-environment) and Poverty Assessments
• Public expenditure review and budgets
• Influencing Macro-economic frameworks,
  particularly in the area of trade and debt

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National development planning relationships
with donor instruments
CCA
Situation Assessment and Analysis
National Development Poverty Plan
UNDAF CAS Other donor assistance plans
Annual PRSP Reports MDG Reports
Monitoring Implementation Impact
Resource Allocation Aid Coordination
Implementation
Country Programmes and Projects
35

• No shift in the way we think or act can be more
  critical than this we must put people at the
  centre of everything we do.
• Kofi Annan, Millenium Report