Tackling rural poverty, together

Extract

Prepared for the first High-Level Forum on Harmonization & Alignment, Rome, February 2003.

In Cambodia, aid coordination and management has undergone a number of changes over the past several years in response to an increasing flow of external assistance, to an increasing mix and number of foreign and national players in development, and to a more complex, cross-sectoral and multi-disciplinary development agenda. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has set up management systems and institutional mechanisms to support aid coordination and management through the Council for the Development of Cambodia. However, in spite of major improvements, the current situation is such that a significant proportion of ODA still bypasses the National Budget process because of the practice of direct funding by donor agencies to project implementers. This situation has resulted in inadequate Government ownership of many projects; in “piece-meal” efforts and insufficient coordination by donor agencies on sectoral issues and institution building; in a proliferation of different procurement, disbursement, auditing, and progress monitoring and procedures among agencies; and in the formation of donor-supported project management units staffed either by expatriates or by nationals with "topped up" salaries, which have adversely impacted on Government’s institution building efforts.

Table of content:

1. Challenges in managing development cooperation in Cambodia
2. Recent government initiatives and progress made
3. Cambodia’s approach to tackling the harmonization issues