Transcript Slide 1

Integrating the PD into
Development Programming
A quest for reforming Public service
Management? Lessons from Malawi
Preamble: Reforming the public sector
• The PD is primarily about reforming the public
sector or the development programming process,
that is reforming how development strategies are
formulated, how resources are allocated
(budgeting), how PFM systems operate, how
progress in implementing the strategies is
monitored and improving the systems for holding
those responsible people accountable for results.
• These are all areas that the Government of
Malawi is striving to make reforms and
improvements
Preamble: Increasing Aid effectiveness or
reducing the principal-agent problem of ODA?
• Four of the five PD norms ( 1,2 4, 5) are to a significant extent about
dealing with the problems of information and power asymmetry in
delivering ODA, even as they address Aid effectiveness.
• Development partners want to assure thru implementing the PD norms,
that the resources they give will be used for the internationally agreed
development agenda that is steered locally with strong national leadership
and that
• the implementation of the national development agenda will be
monitored to make sure that this is the case.
• This requires that national systems for procurement , financial
management, and M&E are robust and also transparent to enable
information to flow freely, so as to reduce information asymmetry.
• It is possible to go about the PD primarily to respond to the information
needs of DPs rather than to engender a genuine reform of the
development programming process to increase the allocative and
technical efficiency of, as well as accountability for, the resources used for
development work.
Outline of presentation
• Provides background of what has taken place
to implement the PD
• Takes each PD norm and explains
– What has been done to put it into practice
– what problems are encountered in doing so.
– The way forward
Localizing the PD in Malawi
• Process started late, in 2006.
• We focused on creating the DAS and implementing quick wins
• The DAS has an action plan - 26 actions (A-Z) with targets and
means of monitoring progress of implementation
• Quick wins have included
The Joint country program review that has evolved into the
MGDS annual review
High level forum on Aid coordination
Sector Coordination Groups
• Malawi is also a pilot country for the Delivering as One of the UN
• For the full DAS visit www.finance.gov.mw
National ownership and leadership
over the development process
• The Malawi growth and development strategy (MGDS) a
second generation PRSP, that ascends economic growth as a
durable way of reducing poverty. The MGDS represents a
significant improvement in the process of formulation over
the previous PRSP, in having been more participatory
• It has five pillars: economic growth, social development, good
governance, infrastructure, and social protection.
• The priority areas selected for implementation are agriculture
and food security, irrigation and water development,
transport infrastructure development, HIV/AIDS and Nutrition,
and integrated rural development
National ownership and leadership
over the development process (2)
• Problems in this area include:
– Conflicting development partner perceptions on the
realism of the MGDS, particularly the prioritization of
activities and their costing and relating to the resource
envelope, and its weak linkage to the budget.
Solutions:
– Reprioritization and costing of activities will be
undertaken, and lead to a budgeting process that is coded
to allow easy tracking of financing for the MGDS activities
– Use the high level forum on Aid coordination to resolve
some of the disagreements on a continuing basis
Alignment to the MGDS and national
PFM, and M&E systems
• Due to the problems mentioned above, DPs are
very weakly aligned to the MGDS.
• Some areas of the MGDs like social development
has more resources. Infrastructure has a high
level of participation but funding still falls short of
the extent of prioritization given by government.
• DPs tend to have inflexible CASs and funding
procedures
• PFM and M& E systems are still weak and DPs
seeking to manage fiduciary risks still use their
own systems.
Alignment to the MGDS and national
PFM, Budget and M&E systems (2)
• Solutions
– Accelerate the process of implementing the PFEM
Action plan
– Designate sector leaders among DPs and create an Aid
map that facilitates the allocation of DP resources to
enable even funding of the MGDS themes
– The GFEM, PFEM Steering Committee and high level
forum on Aid coordination should be used to resolve
some of the issues.
– Government to set its foot down on some
unprofitable DP behavior
Harmonization
• The major way in which the harmonization
agenda is being pursued is thru use of PBAs, a
SWAps exists only in the health sector,
• long and painful gestations of SWAps/PBAs in
agriculture, water, transport and education.
• pooled funds exist in HIV/AIDS and Education
• DPs have their own coordination groups
structured around sectors
Harmonization (2)
• DPs still cling to their individual policies. Despite PD no
DP country has done away with its own polices such
that even harmonization arrangements like JFA and
MOU for SWAps and GBS are subject to bilateral
agreements.
• Government has not been strong to get DPs to act
together. Designating sector leaders and refusing to
see any other donor for sector issues could help in this
direction
• Government should also provide clear guidelines on
missions, reviews and studies to emphasize that they
should be done jointly.
Managing for Results
MGDS M&E system is being developed and
rolled out to the districts
The MGDs annual review has been piloted this
year and should be improved next year
Sectors review that existed only in the health,
education and HIV/AID sectors are being
extended to the other sectors and being
institutionalized as part of the MGDS annual
review process
Managing for Results (2)
• The MGDS annual review process will be the main route
for implementing the managing for results norm. The
process is fraught with problems that must be addressed
quickly
– Systems of collecting and analyzing data on program
implementation and monitoring progress on outcomes are weak
– Capacity to carry out some of the M&E work is still lacking
– leadership problems in the sectors and overall undermine the
process
• Government is seeking to strengthen the M&E
and has secured a pooled fund to achieve this
Mutual accountability
• Government is to be held accountable thru the sector and MGDS
annual reviews, and also parliamentary processes. But civil service
performance management is still weak. The extent to which DPs
feel accountable for development results can not be ascertained.
Some of the activities we are implementing to go in that direction
are as follows:
– Institute an Independent monitoring group to periodically assess the
Aid relationship;
– Incorporate into PAFs of GBS indicators on DP performance. Evaluate
the GBS process every 3 years
– Use the OECD DAC PD survey to bring peer pressure on performance
among DPs
– Use the MGDS annual review and the Sector coordination groups and
the national high level forum on Aid coordination to highlight areas
where both govt and DPs can improve performance
Conclusion
• The GoM has made significant strides in implementing the PD, thru
initiating the reforms that can lead to the attainment of the targets of the
12 PD indicators, in some cases these reforms are pursued as part of the
civil service reform rather than being consciously implemented to localize
the PD. This only goes to support the view that the PD can be
implemented as part of genuine nationally owned activities to improve
the public service rather than responding to the needs of DPs.
• The DAS has been formulated to provide a road map to the process of
localising the PD
• There are constraints in localizing PD norms: problems in holding out the
MGDS as a nationally owned development agenda due to weakness in
operationalizing it for implementation; weak but reforming PFM systems,
slowly harmonizing DPs, and nascent data systems for M&E.
Accountability systems for both Govt and DPs are still weak. The national
leadership is now beginning to take these challenges seriously.