Objectives;
Situation Analysis;
Strategy;
(Expected) Results / Outcome;
Major activities |
Situation analysis: Emerging donors are playing an increasingly important role in the development process. In the past several years, the demand for expertise in other transitional and developing countries has been growing. As former recipient countries that have successfully navigated the transition process, emerging donors are in a unique position to provide expert knowledge to the development community. UNDP has been helping the emerging donor countries to strengthen national capacities for development cooperation, prepare development cooperation frameworks, and establish ODA delivery mechanisms. Anticipated results: Enhanced development cooperation between emerging donor and recipient countries with special focus on RBEC region, especially in terms of: - Establishment and effective use of development cooperation support mechanisms such as Trust Funds, joint programming, exchanges of staff etc.
- Strengthened capacities in ED countries to deliver effective development assistance
- Enhanced role of UNDP and the UN system as partners for and facilitators of East-East and East-South development cooperation
Proposed programme: Since the current strategy proved to be quite successful in terms of resource mobilization, programme delivery and UNDP’s strong facilitating role in national capacity building and donor coordination, it is foreseen that a similar approach will be used in the forthcoming years as well. Briefly speaking, this strategy will contain the following sequence of interventions while respecting the different stages of the donor role among the emerging/new donor countries and their specific requirements: - Support for development of national capacities for development cooperation, in the form of policy advice, staff training, and public-awareness raising about development and development cooperation.
- Establishment, adaptation and transfer of delivery mechanisms for development cooperation including trust funds, cost-sharing arrangements, and promotion of other forms of cooperation such as parallel financing or programmatic support.
- Targeted efforts to involve traditional donor countries in trilateral cooperation.
Current status: UNDP in the RBEC region has helped to strengthen national capacities for development cooperation, prepare development cooperation frameworks, and establish ODA delivery mechanisms in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, the Russian Federation, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Slovenia. Close collaboration is currently being established with Turkey’s International Cooperation Agency. Over $20 million were programmed from various donors via these trust funds during 2003-2008. The Czech Trust Fund has delivered some $4 million in Czech ODA since its inception in 2000. This was done through funding of workshops and study tours, the outposting of Czech development professionals to UNDP country offices and the Bratislava Regional Centre, and cost-sharing contributions to UNDP national and regional projects in a broad variety of programming areas. The bulk of the activities was based on the actual demnands from COs and PSPD. The Hungarian Trust Fund ($2 million for 2004-2009 under NEX in CST portfolio) supports the delivery of Hungarian ODA to priority recipient countries, with special attention to Serbia and Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. It helps formulate and select development cooperation projects that are implemented by Hungarian institutions; recruiting Hungarian experts, NGOs, companies and institutions to be involved in national and regional UNDP programmes and projects. The Slovak Trust Fund is the largest one, helping Slovakia to deliver some $12 million in ODA during 2003-2008. This trust fund, which has been the centrepiece of UNDP’s development cooperation partnership with Slovakia, takes the form of a regional project that is directly executed and implemented by the Bratislava Regional Centre (BRC). Strategic guidance and project approval are provided by Slovakia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs working through the trust fund steering committee. Until 2007 the trust fund relied heavily on the BRC’s administrative and financial capacities, through the work of the Administrative and Contracting Unit (ACU)—a joint venture between UNDP and the Slovak MFA housed in the BRC. Since 2008, the Slovak TF operates in a similar way to the Czech TF with a budget over $1 million USD as a complementary mechanism to the Slovak bilateral ODA (managed by the newly established Slovak ODA agency), fully on a demand driven basis with the aim to promote the slovak transitional expertise within RBEC region and to second couple of young professionals to UNDP COs. The Romanian Trust fund was established in the fall of 2007 by UNDP Bucuresti with major support from EDI specialist. It has already delivered over $3 million USD to support UNDP projects in Georgia, Moldova and Serbia and to build up ODA constituency and raise awareness about development cooperation in Romania. Other Trust Fund proposals are currently under discussion with the governments of Russia and Croatia, tentatively also with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. |
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