ROAD MAP FOR THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK IN STP

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1 UNITED NATIONS COUNTRY TEAM IN Sao Tome and Principe (STP) ROAD MAP FOR THE UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK IN STP I- BACKGROUND With the newly parliamentary members installed and a new Prime Minister appointed from Independent Democratic Action (ADI), which won 33 seats (60%) out of the 55 seats of the National Assembly, the New Government has released early this year its programme and vision of Sao Tome and Principe for next four years starting from 2014 to 2018 and the impending conclusion of the current UNDAF ( ) and the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS ), the Government of STP has requested the UNCT to prepare a new UNDAF so that it aligns to the new Government programme. Owing to the lead time required to prepare and formally approve the UNDAF (and the associated Country Program Documents of the UN Executive Committee Agencies) the new UNDAF should start operating in 2017 and will cover the period up to The recommendations of UNDAF Mid Term Review will be utilized to learn lessons and ensure continuing alignment with the national priority which should be highlighting the new NPRS to be formulated in This current UNDAF, is the second for the country, provides the strategic framework for the partnership between the Government of STP and 10 UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes. Coordinated implementation of the UNDAF is facilitated by a number of mechanisms including periodic dialogue with the Government of STP, regular UNCT meetings, thematic based Priority Working Groups involving both UN and national implementing partners representatives, and while limited, a growing number of joint UN programmes. The UNCT in STP is composed, by definition, all the active UN agencies, Funds and Programmes in the country. Five of these organizations, called "resident" maintain a permanent representation in STP namely: UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, WFP, supplemented by the African Development Bank. Other nonresidents: UNESCO, ONUDI, ILO, UNCTAD, FAO, WFP, UN Habitat, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNODC. The current UNDAF has not benefitted from annual reviews. Further, there is no operational M&E framework for the UNDAF or a functioning M&E Working Group to provide a systematic basis for monitoring and adjusting programming based on effectiveness. Individual agencies have however undertaken regular monitoring of their activities and various program and project level reviews and evaluations. In conjunction with anecdotal perspectives derived from key stakeholders and the Government s own evaluation of the implementation of the NPRS will provide the basis for a lite evaluation to be undertaken to inform the formulation of UNDAF 2017 to While awaiting the UNDAF evaluation and key lessons to be synthesized from it, there are a number of contextual factors that are already apparent and that will need to be accounted for in the formulation of the new UNDAF. On the back of good economic performance during these last five years STP is now a lower Middle Income Country (LMIC) according to the latest GNI 1 P a g e

2 per capita figures published by the World Bank. The country is very dependent on external financing and its technical capacity still requires to be substantially strengthened. This potentially opens the door for a new and mature form of partnership where the UNCT provides technical expertise and international experience to address development priorities identified not by the donor community, but by the citizens of STP. While gains have been made against a number of MDGs, these gains have not been uniformly achieved across all the goals or across the country with significant disparities in achievement between the goals and between localities. This will require consideration within the UNDAF of a more thematically targeted and geographically differentiated approach to address needs in lagging areas. The country is experiencing a soft political tension, but above of all the political indicators seem to be on the good path. It is a fact that, continued political instability has and/or may impede deliver capacity and achieve the required opportunity within the UNDAF to accommodate continued and effective support. Increasing social tensions will necessitate an UNDAF that gives consideration to strengthening social cohesion and supporting resilience measures while also pursuing longer term development objectives. II- PURPOSE The purpose of the UNDAF is to respond to the Development challenges in STP and the priorities articulated in the Government program and the NPRS. The challenge however will be to formulate a new UNDAF that identifies only a limited number of strategic priorities and outcomes that judiciously aligns the UN s comparative advantages to STP s needs, based on a realistic assessment of what is achievable given the operating context and the likely availability of finances KEY NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES The Government programme is structured under two big pillars, which identify multiple areas for particular attention but emphasizes four thematic clustering as the key challenges over the next five year period. These are: sustainable economic drived job creation and wealth; Consolidation of the social issues; justice for all for a better external credibility of STP (Good Governance) and environmental issues. In many respects these areas reflect the persistence of particular constraints despite STP s significant increases in GDP. However, economic activity in 2014 has remained strong. GDP growth is estimated at 4.5 percent, buoyed by higher foreign direct investment (FDI), even though donor-financed public investment projects slowed. Inflation has continued to recede following the peg to the euro in January 2010; reaching 6.4 percent at end-2014 (its lowest end-year rate in two decades). The Central Bank s international reserves, estimated at 4.7 months of imports cover, remained at comfortable levels. Due to slippages in the first half of 2014, the domestic primary fiscal deficit reached 3.6 percent of GDP at the end of 2014, higher than anticipated under the program of IMF. The economic challenges center on diversifying the economy, providing a conducive environment for private investment and increasing employment. With a very apparent youth bulge the importance of creating decent work opportunities is critical. Creating a diversified economy with job growth will require creating an enabling business environment with regulatory and legislative reforms and removal of barriers to trade, transparency in governance, building business incubation and value chains including an emphasis on import substitution, to name a few areas 1 The current UNDAF was formulated with an indicative resource base of USD$ 50 million, with a total of USD$11 million available for the implementation for the whole period. Without a significant financial contribution by the Government for UN operations, the new UNDAF will need to be develop and implement a sound resource mobilization strategy for a better resource base. 2 P a g e

3 for attention. The social challenges are underlined by the fact that STP ranks in the last second out of the middle human development category of countries in respect of health, education, environment and poverty. There remain significant disparities across the country (and between urban and rural areas). Weak capacity in planning (at the sub national level), program and budget execution compounds existing deficits in the provision of essential services. Justice reform is also recognized as a constraint on development. Gender gaps remain significant with relatively low participation of women in the economic, legislative, judicial and executive spheres. The Good Governance challenges focus on the consolidation and improvement of the achievement so far on that dimension, which has been also recognized by MCC for that STP has met the indicators criteria, particularly all the four indicators under governance are all green, justice reform specifically the implementation of this programme in order to have a better justice system near the population. Environmental challenges center on declining productivity of natural assets linked to land degradation (North), constraints on water and food security, expanding desertification, lack of access to sustainable energy. Weak capacities, a poor regulatory environment, and risks emerging from climate change add to the challenges faced by the country. These challenges are significantly compounded by the prevailing political instability. 2- UNITED NATIONS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE The UNDAF of STP is not only a framework of cooperation for development between the UN agencies and the authorities. It presents the convergence of areas where the mandates of the agencies apply, allowing each to play in the best comparative advantage. Indeed, the United Nations must consolidate their comparative advantage in sectors where their assistance was recognized as achieved results, as they should position themselves in others where, as part of the expertise of agencies, such support can help national institutions, whether advocacy for certain themes, support to the process of development and evaluation of public policies or of institutional capacity development support. The team responsible for the mid-term review of the STP UNDAF identified the following main comparative advantages, which will be refined in the next Country Analysis: The periodic political and technical advice for the implementation of major prospective studies allows STP to have global visions on major development issues of the country - cf. especially in recent years, the national consultations worldwide, the national dialogue and vision 2030.; Compared to other donors and bilateral cooperation agencies, the independent intellectual leadership of the UN is an important asset in defining the strategic priorities of developing countries; Support for the governance of institutions by strengthening their capabilities - cf. especially in recent years, in the areas of justice, social protection.; The UNDAF is a key instrument of the vision and strategic priorities of the United Nations contribution to national development priorities; STP will also benefit from an UNDAF that positions the UN to deliver its significant technical expertise and international experience to assist in policy formulation on key development issues and to also support national execution of priority development programmes both at the national and sub national level, particularly in areas that are developmentally lagging; The UN is also in a unique position to promote and support the implementation of international norms and standards, including in the areas of human rights and gender equality. 3 P a g e

4 The UN can also assist STP to effectively engage in regional fora on issues of cross sea border concern. The UN has convening power, it is not for profit and has no political agenda, which sharply differentiates it from private and bilateral sources of support. Furthermore its interventions and engagement in premised on a Human Rights Based approach. 3- QUADRENNIAL COMPREHENSIVE POLICY REVIEW Following the UN General Assembly adoption of a resolution (A/Res/67/226) relating to the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR), a number of clear directions have been set in respect of strategic priorities and approaches that need to be factored into any UNDAF. The strategic priorities are focused on MDG achievement; the post 2015 agenda; crisis and post crisis transitions; national capacity development; and development effectiveness. These all are very relevant to the STP context and therefore to the new UNDAF. The strategic approaches relate to: promoting coherence across the UN system; an effective RC system; simplified and harmonized processes; and effective partnerships. While the UNCT have done much to work collaboratively, the UNDAF needs to give particular attention to these strategic approaches to strengthen the internal efficiency and development impact of the UN system in STP, and the systems and processes required to facilitate this should be reflected in the new UNDAF. III- PROCESS While the formal process of UNDAF preparation is about to start, there is a substantial body of work that has been undertaken by the Government - some with the support of the UN - that provide a very strong foundation going forward. The Government program, the 3 rd MDG report, the NHDR, the vision 2030 formulation process involved support by, and consultation with, the UN system. A number of significant research and analytical exercises have also been undertaken jointly with the Government. Major consultations were undertaken with civil society, youth, women, the disable persons associations on the Post 2015 agenda. What remains to be done is to harness this information and translate it into a sharply focused UNDAF, which should take into consideration the new Sustainable Development Goals and its fully implementation for better results. The process will be undertaken over nine months (see time-line at Attachment A). 1- UNDAF PREPARATION The process to prepare the UNDAF will entail three key steps: A quick evaluation of the current UNDAF. The purpose of this exercise is to support greater collective learning about what should be the priorities for the UN in partnership with the Government and stakeholders based on an examination of the lessons learned in implementing the various interventions of the United Nations Agencies Funds Programmes in the unique context of STP. This, as previously indicated, will be constrained by the lack of a strong empirical base given the absence of an operational M&E system for the current UNDAF. Similarly, the Government has also been constrained in its capacity to measure performance against the previous NPRS owing to a lack of sufficient data relating to its key indicators for progress (impeding drawing any conclusions on the UN s contribution to the achievement of national targets). The evaluation therefore will be based upon a desk study of relevant substantive reviews, assessments and evaluations conducted by UN agencies, Funds and Programmes and consultations with relevant stakeholders. The evaluation will also review the theory of 4 P a g e

5 change assumed by UN Agencies, Funds and Programmes when identifying key interventions to achieve desired outcomes. The effectiveness of the internal UN governance and coherence arrangements in place will also be examined with a view to identifying strategies to facilitate a move towards Delivering As One (DAO). The rational of the implementation of DaO within STP is that, after the Government request to have the Country as a self-starting one, the UNCT had developed a plan for consultations and interiorization of the SOPs. Two civil servant staff with UN staff have undertaking a mission on Cape Verde for learn the DaO experience as one of the pilot countries of DaO. Recently with the appointment of the XVI government, the MNEC and The Planning and Economy Ministries had requested the Resident Coordinator more information about the DaO. The RC informed that the basics have been interiorized by the resident agencies and will be implemented together with the non-resident agencies during the coming programming cycle. There are a volume of factors that does help to consolidate further the UN action,, factors such us one UN house, agreements on joint programmes and the level of HACT compliance achieved so far, helps driving the agenda further. The UNS has also disseminated the SPOs among all the UN staffs and the Government for better understanding of the new standard procedures operating. Therefore, there are sufficient grounds for working together through DaO for better support the country in order to achieve a social and economic transformation. During the UNCT s retreat held on 10 th, 11 th and 12 th of March 2015, DOCO has made a presentation on the different process of DaO to the UNCT and the Government Representatives. This allow all of them for agree on the next steps for implementing SPOs in the country. An analysis of the prevailing and projected context. This analysis will complement the considerable amount of research work that was undertaken by the Government in developing the NPRS. The Government drew upon three comprehensive surveys (Household survey, MICS and DHS). An analysis of MDG achievement at the national level has also been recently completed. A number of these exercises were supported by the UN system. A series of thematic strategies have also been developed by the Government, each with its own analytical base. This existing information will be reviewed by the UNCT and if any major gaps are apparent or further detailed examination is required, subject to time constraints and available capacity, further analysis will be undertaken. In view of increasing potential political tensions and ensuing conflict that continues to constrain development, an analysis of potential entry points to support social cohesion will also be undertaken. The final product will be a synthesis paper that highlights the key issues arising from the above and the lite evaluation. The synthesis paper will provide the basis for the strategic prioritization to follow. Formulation of an UNDAF which: identifies a limited number of strategic priorities and outcomes; provides a clear articulation of the theory of change/causal links to achieve the envisaged outcomes (reflected in a realistic results matrix); defines the internal coherence approaches; and agrees on the overall governance arrangement for UNDAF implementation. At a minimum, training on Results Based Management and Human Rights Based Approaches will be provided to help inform the selection of priorities and outcomes. A Strategic Priorities Retreat will provide the forum for the UNCT, Government and key stakeholders (drawn from civil society, NGOs, and marginalized and disadvantaged groups) to discuss and determine the content of the UNDAF. The UNDAF should represent a significant deviation from the previous UNDAF. It will need to be more focused given the resource constraints the UN is likely to operate within. It should be premised on a far higher level of joint UN effort in support of 5 P a g e

6 nationally determined and executed programs. It also implies a move upstream with greater emphasis on policy support and less on direct UN administered service delivery. The UNDAF should have an inherent flexibility to guide interventions in a dynamic context that could equally see periods of crisis and stability within the five year period. With this potential dynamic context in mind, UNCT will adopt the option 1c and UNDAF 2 related to that option will be developed. Cognizant of the fact that the UN presence in STP is constituted by the Resident Agencies (five of them) and Non Resident Agencies, the UNDAF will be formulated in a manner that informs and complements the Integrated Strategic Framework which outlines a coherent approach among the UNCT. This UNDAF will make the gender equality a reality in São Tome and Principe. Therefore to monitor the gender mainstreaming a gender maker should be applied at each step of the process starting from the Country Analysis up to the Joint annual or biannual working plans. 2- KEY STAGES OF CONSULTATION AND GOVERNANCE The UNCT will be regularly updated and consulted throughout the 3 stage process outlined above. A small UNDAF Advisory Group comprised of representatives of the Government and UNCT and co-chaired by the Resident Coordinator s Office (RCO) and Government representatives has been established to provide quality assurance and guidance throughout the process. Consultations with Government and stakeholders have also been scheduled at three critical points: review of the synthesis issues paper drawing together key issues arising from the lite evaluation and the analytical work; at the Strategic Prioritization Retreat; and once an initial draft UNDAF has been prepared. The final draft UNDAF will be submitted for GOI endorsement. VI- SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS Support from the Regional Office Peer Support Group (PSG), UN Development Operations Coordination Office (DOCO) and the UN System Staff College (UNSSC) will be required at various points in the process of formulating the UNDAF. The PSG is requested to review the analysis undertaken by UNCT and the Government, the Synthesis Paper and the draft UNDAF. DOCO and the UNSSC are requested to provide resource people for the training on HRBA (possibly also provided by UNDP s Regional Center in Addis Ababa) and RBM (and other thematic training if required) and for the Strategic Prioritization Workshop. UNDP s Regional Bureau for Africa, UNFPA s regional Bureau and UNICEF s regional Bureau in Dakar are requested to support the Social Cohesion Analysis. The UNDAF task force would be established to conduct the Lite Evaluation, produce the Synthesis Issues Paper and draft the UNDAF document. The consultant will work under the direction of the RCO. DOCO is requested to contribute to the cost of a recruitment of external Consultant (optional) and the various consultation workshops including the Strategic Prioritization Workshop. As previously indicated Attachment A provides a nominal timeline for this support. 2 The UNCT decided during the last retreat to adopt the Option 1c, which would be to develop the UNDAF result matrix at the outcome level (similar to Option 1a), and then immediately develop annual/bi-annual results and activities in workplans, and thereby avoid the necessity of developing an UNDAF Action Plan. For Option1c, the result chain would be: Outcomes (UNDAF) Outputs & Activities (as outlined in result group s bi-annual or annual or agency-specific Work Plans). 6 P a g e

7 UNDAF Chronogram Actions to be performed Time to be performed Responsible Cost (US$) Comments UNDAF time line and process agreed March 2015 Road Map for UNDAF drafted and endorsed by the Government Desk review of Country Program related documentation by UNCT and UNDAF task force commences Country Analysis begins (complementary UNCT supported analytical work drawing on the Government analytical work if there is any). This will include a macro level social cohesion analysis. UN training/workshop on HRBA and other UN programming principles Independent Evaluation of UNDAF and NPRS. Finalization of analysis and validation workshop with key stakeholders (further analytical products May 2015 May-June 2015 June rd quarter of June 2015 July 2015 July - August 2015 The resources should be indicated for recruiting consultants 7 P a g e

8 may be required depending on outcomes of evaluation). Key issue brief on CCA/country analysis and evaluation and CCA s gender maker UNDAF retreat to agree on strategic priorities and internal coherence approach Training on RBM and detailed work on result matrix August - September 2015 October 2015 October 2015 Draft of UNDAF December 2015 UNDAF s Gender maker January 2016 Final external consultations and Government endorsement of the new Draft Country offices finalize the draft CPD with the Government incorporating where appropriate all the substantive inputs from HQ and the RSC up to that point Jan February 2016 UNDAF posted on the UN STP web site and DOCO April P a g e

9 UNCT EXcom agencies internal clearances and approval of CPD secured Executive Board Secretariat posts the draft CPDs on its web for review by the members states six weeks in advance of the Executive Board session March 2016 April 2016 Executive Board considers the CPDs September P a g e