Technical Facility Annual Progress Report 2014

Transcription

1 Technical Facility Annual Progress Report 2014

2 1. Introduction In its national development vision, Zambia aspires to become a middle income country by This is being perused through a series of medium term national development framework including the SNDP. Key among the objectives of the SNDP and in line with the CPAP is to expand the economic base, so that growth and productive employment becomes broad based. The R-SNDP gives particular emphasis on upgrading and expanding the manufacturing base to include value addition and expansion of infrastructure and employment in the different sectors of the economy. This is premised on prudent macroeconomic frameworks that favours low inflation rates so that investments and incomes are protected from volatile business environment. The R- SNDP also emphasises strong revenue mobilization and responsible borrowing to avoid falling in a debt trap while ensuring care in the management of debt. The UNDP overall strategy for providing support to the Republic of Zambia is laid out in the Country Programme Documents operationalized in the Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP). Under the umbrella of the UNDAF both the CPD and the CPAP are aligned to the national development priorities spelt out in the SNDP. Building on the CPAP and the UNDAF outcome II, UNDP in Zambia observed that the response by the country office to sudden emerging issues in previous development activities was suboptional. The CPAP included an inherent plan for addressing urgent issues within the areas of UNDP support. Consistent with its support, the Technical Facility is one such Programme which provides mechanisms for addressing such issues both at upstream and downstream with a strategic focus on ensuring sustainable development of institutional capacities as well as ensuring that the SNDP interventions have an impact on human development. This report highlight the main activities that were implemented during the period January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014 based on an approved annual work plan of the Zambia Technical Facility Programme integrating the discussion from the Annual Programme Review Meeting held in December 2014 at Pamodzi Hotel, Lusaka. 2. Background and purpose of programme The Zambia Technical Facility for Strategic Response to Government of the Republic of Zambia is a four years Programme which started in The programme runs through up to December 31, The Programme aims at enhancing the attainment of the National Development Plan results embodied in the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) in line with the UNDP Country Action Plan (CPAP ). The purpose of the facility is to enable the Government (GRZ) and UNDP respond with technical assistance to the programme related studies, assessments, reviews, strategic policy advisory services and programme development and implementation services within four (4) Programme areas: 1. Inclusive growth, resilience to shock and poverty analysis;

3 2. Public policies, effective services delivery and accelerated achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; 3. Political economy and institutional drivers of human development; 4. National Millennium Development Goals and Human Development Reports. The facility intervenes by providing support to data, research and advocacy while demonstrating initiatives that enables a policy and institutional response to leverage the implementation of the SNDP. The initiative has to demonstrate its relevance in supporting CPAP by addressing sudden emerging issues or unforeseen needs in relation to which there are no specific Government or UNDP outputs or activities defined in the Programme document for which resources allocated through the SNDP and CPAP. The facility is implemented as a flexible, quick disbursing and rapid response capacity support programme Programme goals The goal of the Programme is to attain development results of the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) in areas supported by the Country Action Plan (CPAP) in an inclusive manner with the focus on sustainable human development Programme objectives The objective of the Programme is to equip Government Ministries and national institutions critical for the attainment of the R-SNDP and CPAP development results with skills and resources for the preparation, implementation and evaluation of human oriented policies, strategies and programmes Expected results Enable Government Ministries and national institutions critical for the attainment of the SNDP and CPAP development results focus on human development in the preparation, implementation and evaluation of development policies, strategies and programmes. 3. Programme outputs and areas of operations The 2014 annual work plan had three main outputs namely; (1) capacity to budget, implement and monitor public investment programmes developed in strategic sector ministries, (2) planning, monitoring and advocacy and dialogue on human development and enhancement of the MDGs and; (3) enhancing the capacity of civil society organisations for the development of national statistics Output 1: Capacity to budget, implement and monitor public investment programmes developed in strategic sector ministries Among the key deliverables under output 1 was the development public investment programme appraisal and implementation analysis for the MoF. The activities were also aimed at providing

4 technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance to conduct expenditure and social impact analysis and providing support to the National Treasury functions of the ministry. Under public investment Programme appraisal, the programme aimed developing methodologies for conducting public investment programme appraisal and implementation analysis and developing a framework for policy analysis and implementation. To enable smooth transitions of the knowledge generated from the programme appraisal system to the staff of the ministry, the programme intends to provide an in-house training and development of manuals for policy analysis and programme implementation and appraisal system for use by the MoF Output 2: Planning, monitoring and advocacy and dialogue on human development and enhancement of the MDGs Planning, monitoring and advocacy and dialogue on human development and enhancement of the MDGs were the key programme milestone for The programme aimed at developing the capacity for monitoring, analysing and reporting on MDGs, National Development Plan and human development progress reports. It was anticipated that at the end of 2014, the ZHDR, MDG Progress Report 2014, the MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF) action plan are produced and launched. In the same period, the programme output was to provide technical and institutional support towards the promotion of the human development course in tertiary institutions Output 3: Enhancing the capacity of Central Statistical Office to development National Statistics The facility s aim was to provide technical assistance to the MoF and CSO to conduct environmental and climate change statistic by designing a programme to develop the capacity of CSO for the compilation of comprehensive environmental statistics and setting up a system of environmental accounting. 4. Progress against planned results by output 4.1. Output 1: Capacity to budget, Implement and monitor public investment programmes a) Public Investment Programme Appraisal and Implementation Analysis ToR for Public Investment Programme Appraisal and Implementation Analysis were developed to engage the consultant to develop methodologies for conducting the public investment appraisal and implementation analysis. Most of the activities were implemented in This was to enable completion of the Capacity Building Programmes in the Ministry of Finance that was being undertaken by Duke University. At the same time, the MoF was undergoing restructuring.

5 The report for conducting public investment project appraisal system and the manual has been produced. A stakeholder technical workshop to validate the report and the manual will be organised later before the end of b) Design Public Expenditure (PETS) Methodologies The facility work plan for 2014 also included the provision of technical assistance to the MoF to conduct expenditure and social impact analysis. Preliminary consultations were initiated in the second quarter of 2013 with the MoF on how to develop an effective public expenditure tracking and social impact analysis. In the course of the year, particularly in the third quarter, a concept note for expenditure tracking and social impact analysis was developed. This was followed by preliminary comments and then the draft ToRs ware developed. The Public Expenditure Tracking has not been carried out. This was based on advisory from the MoF that the PETS are a product that will facilitate the implementation of Public Investment Project Appraisal System. It was discussed during monitoring review meeting that the PETS need to wait until Public Investment Project Appraisal System takes place Output 2: Planning, monitoring and advocacy and dialogue on human development and enhancement of the MDGs a) Production, launch and dissemination of the ZHDR 2014 Progress towards the production of the ZHDR 2014 started with preliminary calculations of the HDI indices in-house. The calculations were later validated by an independent consultant. These were computed in consultations with the Human Development Report Office (HDRO) in New York. The theme Industrialization in Zambia: Poverty Reduction through Wealth and Job Creation for Inclusive Development was chosen and the concept note was developed in During the course of the year, an advisory committee was established to provide technical advisory services for the ZHDR. The advisory committee sat four times in 2013 deliberating on the concept note. The final concept note was adopted in October The ToRs were then developed to engage the consultants to produce the ZHDR. The consulting services to develop the ZHDR were advertised in December 2013 and the recruitment process was postponed to continue in Provincial field visits were undertaken by the consultants to collect qualitative data; In 2014 the draft ZHDR was produced and circulated for comments among various stakeholders which include the ZHDR Advisory Committee, members from the private sector and Government. A stakeholder workshop was also held in Chisamba in September to review and validate the findings from the report.

6 Issues During the stakeholder workshop for the MAF, there was consensus to hold to the development of the MAF action plan as the country prepares to transition to the SDG. b) Development and Monitoring of MDG Acceleration Plans (MAF) Progress during the period under review was the development of MDG acceleration Framework (MAF). During the course of the year, the Draft MAF report was produced. However, moving forward a number of comments were highlighted in the report which led to outsourcing for an international Consultant hired to re-draft the MAF Report and make the analysis more robust because the analysis in the initial MAF Report drafted by the local consultant was weak. Internal review of the final draft MAF Report was conducted. The Draft MAF report was produced and the validation workshop was held in October 2014 at Southern Sun Hotel. Participants included the Government, Private sector and Academia. During the validation workshop, discussions also hinge on how to transition the MAF into the Sustainable Development Goals Framework given that now countries will be transitioning to the SDG and that the 2015 MDG deadline is coming to an end. c) Technical and institutional support to tertiary institutions Since 2007, UNDP has been working with tertiary institutions in the promotion of the Human Development Course in Tertiary Institutions. The initiative arose from the realisation that economic growth does not necessarily entail improvements in human development. Parallel growth has been witnessed in recent years where the economy is growing while poverty, inequality and exclusion are widening. The programme started as a pilot with University of Zambia in 2007 and in 2011 it was scaled up to Mulungushi and Copperbelt Universities. A stakeholder workshop was held in March 2014 at Protea Hotel, Lusaka to discuss with various institutions of higher learning on furthering or up scaling the human Development course to other institutions of higher learning which includes colleges. Currently, the course is offered at University of Zambia, Copperbelt University and Mulungushi University Output 3: Enhance the capacity of Central Statistical Office to develop National Statistics a) Conduct environmental and climate statistics and set up environmental accounting The CSO developed a Concept Note and summited to UNDP the regarding the subject matter. However, a peer review of the concept note was conducted by UNDP and based on the content

7 of the concept note; the peer review team argued that most of the activities proposed in the concept note were basically workshops rather than the planned activities in the work plan. It was resolved that CSO re-submit the concept note which should include a proposed methodology on how environmental data would be collected. However, CSO did not revert back with a consolidated concept note as at December It is worth mentioning that there was no significant progress for this activity made in 2014 as it was not budgeted for. 5. Key development drivers and cross cutting issues Although preliminary works under output I and II had started in 2013, most of the activities were basically in the infant stage and were implemented in Challenges The most significant challenges in the period under review were: The production and launch of the Zambia Human Development Report was delayed because of the unforeseen challenges encountered with the consultants. In particular, the Team Leader was involved in a fatal road traffic accident The quality of work submitted by the other team members was unsatisfactory towards the development of the ZHDR; this resulted into the back and forth process between the consultant and the Report Peer Review Team. Zambia has inadequate local consultancy firms or individuals that are able to produce timely and robust analytical reports. Consequently, analytical outputs have tended to be delayed because of the many times that work has to be reviewed. Timely availability of data from CSO to enable the facility prepare its analytical reports (NHDR and MDGR) made it difficult to meet tight deadlines 5.2. Lessons learnt Among the lessons learnt and some of the best practices moving forward were; Encourage constant engagement with the implementing partner to ensure timely delivery outputs Continue to closely monitor consultants to ensure credible work and analytical pieces are of good quality 6. Programme expenditure For the period 2014, the facility had a budget of US$300,000. As at December Annual Programme Review Meeting, a total of US$241, was spent and there was a balance of US$58, Project delivery was at 80.6%.

8 7. Conclusion Most of the activities that took place were basically from output I and II. Given that the technical facility is implemented as a flexible, quick disbursing and rapid response capacity support programme, it has been noted that any delay in implementing some of the programmes may impact the output.