Transcript Slide 1

Summary of Outcomes
Regional Workshop
Sustainable Development Transition Series in Nairobi
Ernest Acheampong
African Technology policy Studies Networks(ATPS) /SDplanNet Africa
www.atpsnet.org
www.sdplannet-africa.org
SDplanNet Africa Workshop
Overarching Objective:
To articulate a set of innovative practices for transformative strategy-making, planning and
implementation for sustainable development at the national and sub-national levels in Africa.
The workshop aims to advance a Community of Practice (CoP) among government planners,
NGOs, civil society, private sector actors and policy-makers
– by creating a knowledge base and capacity building agenda for innovative practices in
strategy-making, planning and implementation
– that is commensurate with the demands of transformation that the Post-2015
Development Agenda and sustainable development goals (SDGs) pose to all regions of
the world.
Participants
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Twenty seven (27) practitioners from 11 African countries (NCSD, Ministries, NGOs and
Private Sector)
SDPlanNet colleagues from Asia-Pacific and LAC regions, GIZ
UN agencies: UNEP, UNESCO and UNU-INRA
Approaches and Methods
Participatory sessions
– World Café sessions
– Rapid foresight exercise
– Brainstorming exercise
– Carousel exercise
Fictional
New African Country
Achieved all its
national SDG
targets
Reality
Current State of
Practices
2030
2014
Four key questions to explore the future of governance and practice in the year 2030 for
mainstreaming sustainable development principles into national and regional planning:
•What are the multi-stakeholder processes and institutions that enabled the new African country
to set and implement its strategy?
•What does integrated development planning look like in the new African country with respect to
vertical and horizontal collaboration?
•What Policies enabled the new country to achieve co-benefits across water, energy, and food
security?
•What are the monitoring, reporting and accountability processes and institutions were in place
that helped the new African country be adaptive and continuously learn and improve over time?
Multi-stakeholder processes and institutions that enabled the new African country to
set and implement its strategy?
Establishment of National Council/Commission for
Sustainable Development (NCSD)
 Designs strategies and action plans for the
short-term, medium term and long term
development
 The Secretariat ensures vertical coordination
through a reporting mechanism
 Coordinates the various committees working on
different issues such as water, health, energy
and food security
Chaired by the President/Prime Minster
Other of Executive Committee members drawn from
government departmentsEnvironment, natural resources and climate change;
Planning and infrastructure;
Finance
Social ministry (e.g. gender, health)
Energy and
Education
The private sector; academia/research; and the civil society
actors
The national executive committee meets three time for
review and updates
Integrated development planning with respect to Vertical Alignment
 Coordinated approaches in planning
and implementation
 Access to information
 Space for participation of all actors
Empowerment of communities to
implement priority actions
 Application of subsidiarity principle
(decisions at the lowest possible
administrative and political level, and
as close to the citizens as possible)*
 Capacity building at community
levels
 Raising of awareness at all levels
 Political goodwill and less corruption
 Linkages with global, regional,
national and local policies and plans
(‘Glocal’ planning)
* Fundamental to the functioning of the
European Union and EU decision-making
Horizontal collaboration
 Issues identified at lower levels (sub-national) are fed upwards to
national levels
 Guidelines for planning and mainstreaming sustainable development are
provided;
 Provisions are made for gender mainstreaming and consideration for
vulnerable groups
 Experiences are shared between communities
 Provisions for legal framework and adherence to the rule of law
 Accountability and transparency; clear responsibilities
 Effective communication of results to stakeholders
 Regular communication and feedback mechanisms
 Integration of indigenous knowledge systems
 Effective monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems at all levels;
 Removal of financial barriers to integrated planning
 Mobilization of resources to address priority issues
 Minimal external influence on domestic issues
 Design of ‘living plans’ that are regularly reviewed; and
 Long term planning as an act of parliament among others
Cross-cutting Policies
Enablers
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Renewable energy policy; social development
policies (including education, capacity building, ICT,
health, human settlement, culture and tourism);
and infrastructural development (roads, housing,
irrigation, etc.) policies.
Policies on poverty impact assessment; strategic
environment assessment; conflict management;
gender; food security; climate change;
Devolution and decentralization; inclusive growth
and access to resources; disaster and risks
management; emergency management (resilient
policies);
Polluter-pay policy; demographic/population policy;
sustainable cities; partnerships and cooperation;
research-policy-practice linkage; and the policy on
STI development.
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Policies are based on existing resources (human and
material) available in the countries;
Policies are demand-driven, people centered and
home-grown.
Policies are environmentally friendly
Policies are able to sustain economic growth
through empowerment and inclusive growth
opportunities.
Coherency in policy formulation
Identifying synergies across the relevant sectors.
There is good governance and effective leadership
to drive the policies that were developed
Monitoring, reporting and accountability processes and institutions
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The availability of disaggregated (baseline) data
used for measuring progress in planning and
implementation activities
Setting of clear goals at the national and subnational levels that align with global SD goals
Participatory monitoring taking local knowledge
into consideration
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The accountability issues
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The goals have clear indicators which are SMARTspecific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and
time-bound at national and sub-national levels
that mirror the global indicators as well
The evaluation process on its part are timely with
a feedback loop
An effective institutional framework at the
national and sub-national levels in place to
accomplish SDG targets
Institutions regularly provide information sources
that will enable monitoring and evaluation
processes.
Building trust among stakeholders
Stakeholders are accountable to the entire
process; accountability/performance indicators
agreements
monitoring and evaluation that are supported by
resources
Gaps and Challenges and Capacity Building Needs
Multi-stakeholder participationGaps and Challenges
Capacity Building Needs
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Lack of institutionalized mechanisms or
frameworks for stakeholder engagement and
consultations
Lack of understanding of key SD issues by
stakeholders participating in the process-fuelled
by poor communication skills amongst the
stakeholders including governments and nongovernmental bodies.
Low awareness about SD at the institutional and
public levels;
Lack of common vision by stakeholders;
top-down orientation of SD plans;
Inadequate resources to bring a diverse and
comprehensive range of stakeholder (voices) into
strategy-making processes
Poor implementation of recommendations agreed
by stakeholders;
Lack of integration of national strategies into intranational planning
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First develop a guideline or institutional
framework for stakeholder engagement in the
process specifying who will be involved in the
process, their roles, tenure, and mandates.
NCSDs should be created in countries where they
do not exist and strengthened in other countries
where they do exist. Such councils/commissions
should be institutionalized with multi-stakeholder
drawn from well-informed experts.
There should be strong awareness drive and
education by the council to ensure that all
stakeholders are well informed and carried along
in the activities of the council/commission.
The councils/commissions should have a robust
power devolution system and a harmonized
committee to coordinate different sectors that are
doing similar activities for sustainable
development.
Integrated Planning and Analysis - Gaps and
Challenges
Addressing Gaps
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Centralized governance structure which is bureaucratic
with weak institutional support is regarded as a common
challenge in multi-stakeholder participation and strategy
planning Africa
Lack of political goodwill
Poor accountability and transparency
Limited coordination within and across sectors
Poor implementation mechanisms
Lack of resources for effective monitoring and evaluation;
Lack of harmonized and coherent plans and sectoral
competition rather than collaboration.
Issues of sustainable development are not yet adequately
covered in educational
SD plans are gender ‘blind’ and hence defeats the principle
of inclusiveness in multi-stakeholder participations.
External influences on Africa’s development;
Poor use of endogenous capacity and resources;
Poor alignment of plans with human needs and priorities.
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At the horizontal level, coordination across
various ministries in government. This is
important to ensure a harmonized budgeting and
financing plans.
Mechanisms to ensure genuine cooperation and
collaboration between sectors and government
departments based on related program
implementation plans. This should occur more
regularly and at all levels.
There is also need for a stakeholder ownership of
plans with clearly defined roles for each
stakeholder category.
At the vertical level, there was need to formally
involve municipalities in the national and subnational planning processes. This could be a role
for the NCSD to oversee as well as increase the
institutional capacities to do this.
Cross-Cutting PoliciesGaps and Challenges
Addressing the Gaps
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Poor policy implementation across sectors
Lack of coordination in policy development and
implementation
Poor monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of
policies
New and emerging issues such as climate change
not captured yet in national policies
Corruption in high and low places of government
Policies not often translated most into other local
languages
The lack of policy integration across sectors
Legislative bureaucracies, and
The influx of many development tools with less
implementation
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Mainstreaming SD in each sector of the economy.
These sectors must also demonstrate how it is
meeting or incorporating national and subnational SD targets and objectives. For example,
the energy policy should show how it is addressing
SD goals across inter-related sectors such as food,
water, and poverty reduction.
There is need to significantly improve
opportunities for long term policies with social,
economic, and environmental co-benefits that are
sustainable.
An inter-agency coordinating body should be
established to coordinate various sector policies.
This role can also be played by the NCSD.
Reshaping Our World– New Priorities and New Values for a Changing World
Monitoring, Reporting and
Accountability- challenges and gaps
Addressing the Gaps
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Overall dearth of data and information required
for effective SD planning and strategy making in
Africa
Production of poor quality reports that are not
evidence-based and often result in disputes and
misconception of facts.
Where the information exists, they are not
accessible and freely shared.
Poor logistical supports for data collection,
analysis and storage.
Lack of up-to-date statistical service in the
region leads to the development of unrealistic
indicators.
Monitoring and evaluation is very expensive
and hence is not prioritized even as it is very
important.
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Standards have to be set for quality data
collection and analysis.
A national framework for M&E and
accountability with clear indicators should be
developed.
Indicators (beyond GDP and based on
disaggregated data by region or district) aligned
to the SD strategy
Capacity building of personnel to ensure that
SMART indicators are developed.
Systematic monitoring, evaluation, reporting
and accountability must occur at different levels
including national and sub-national levels.
There should be clear incentives or
disincentives for compliance or non-compliance
to set standards.
Allocate adequate resources to the Bureau of
Statistics of any country to enable it collate and
generate data,
Build capacity of personnel to collect and share
data across sectors and borders.
Overall Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing Needs for advancing
sustainable development
Capacity Building
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Knowledge Sharing
Systemic Level
 Wide dissemination of best practices, lessons
Building capacity on the methodological
learnt from local, country, regional and global
approaches for developing, implementing and
cases
assessing SD issues
 Document, translate, synthesize knowledge
Building databases and harmonizing standards
generated from SD and communicate same to
Improving planning skills
relevant stakeholders including ministries, subDialogue and demonstration at the rural levels to
national actors, the civil society, and the general
understand SD and its implications
public
 Legitimacy of SD plans/policies for recognition
Mechanisms to empower personnel at different
and acceptance
levels and mobilize resources for SD activities
 Amplifying sustainable rural lessons and case
Capacity on compliance with international
examples for up scaling opportunities
/regional standard agreements
 Common Platform for knowledge sharing on SD
Awareness raising on SD issues at all levels
strategies/plans to avoid duplication
Capacity building on monitoring and reporting
 Effective advocacy to mobilize political supports
and goodwill
 Networking and building coalition around shared
interests
Capacity Building
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Knowledge Sharing
Institutional level
 All the knowledge sharing issues under systemic
Strengthening institution to integrate SD into
level also apply to the institutions.
policies, plans and strategies (horizontal and
vertical)
Improving communication and leadership skills
through training
Providing skills and tools for SD implementation
and assessment
Establishing auditing mechanisms that go beyond
just financial reporting in the ministries
Capacity building on transparent budget
management
Forecasting and scenario building that links to SD
targets and indicators
Resources mobilization to finance SD programs and
priority projects
Capacity Building
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Knowledge Sharing
Individual level
Developing/improving analytical and evaluative
capacity for SD
Ability to develop policy briefs from research
projects
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Linking research results and outputs among
researchers to policy and practice
Network building and collaborations
Strategies for Strengthening and Coordinating
Community of Practice Networks
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Effective communication improves information access and flow amongst stakeholders and hence
implementation.
A communication strategy is therefore required to define target audience for organisations and
how to reach out to them with clear messages.
There is need for strong coordination between members. The roles of each member must be
clarified.
Champions from each region must be identified to promote the ideals of CoP in the area. This will
include the SDplanNet-Africa delegates.
Resource mobilization in human and financial forms will be required to strengthen CoP in Africa
(internal or External).
Organizing Annual General Meetings (AGM) to review progress and share information on SD issues
Piggy-backing on other regional or continental meetings and domestic resource mobilization were
then recommended as a way to cut costs to achieve this objective.
A formal rule of engagement or charter should be developed and agreed from the outset as a
guiding principle for the operations of CoP in the region. This should include making clear the
objectives of the network, the constituencies, and their roles among others.
Conclusion
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Crucial to the sustainability of the SDplanNet-Africa will be the extent to which support can
be harnessed from national governments to maintain the momentum for the sustainable
development agenda.
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Sustainable Development must be viewed as a commitment to a transitioning process, one
in which economic, social and ecological goals are increasingly integrated by the means of
politics, technology, organizations, planning, administration, communication etc. It is a way
of travelling and not the final destination.
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It is a long-term feature of systems behavior which cannot be understood over months or
even a few years of development planning. It involves fostering values such as equity,
capability to survive, democracy and global responsibility towards a sustainable world.
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