SUDAN CONSORTIUM - JUBA - MARCH 21 2007 STATEMENT BY THE JOINT DONOR TEAM Opening Remarks I would like to make a statement on behalf of the countries who make up the Joint Donor Team for Southern Sudan: Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK. As colleagues here will be aware, the Joint Donor Team is a new experiment in aid delivery, the first office of its kind, where a single, integrated office fully represents our five countries to ensure effective delivery of reconstruction and development assistance to the Government of Southern Sudan. We very much welcome the fact that the Consortium is being held in Juba today and thank the GoSS for hosting this event. Interestingly, it is exactly a year ago to the day that the very first Joint Donor Team permanent staff members arrived in Juba! This event underscores the strong relationship the GoSS has built with the international community, based on co-operation and dialogue, and a shared vision of supporting peace, reconstruction and sustainable development in Southern Sudan. In 2006, the Joint Donor partnership together provided a sum of $110 million to the GoSS, of which $80 million went to MDTF, and approximately $30 million into other joint and bilateral programmes. Humanitarian assistance is additional to this, with the partner countries providing over 95% in 2006 of the support to the Common Humanitarian Fund. The Joint Donor Partners have delivered all our Oslo pledges so far and we do not intend to stop there. We wholeheartedly, and without reservation, renew our commitment to the CPA and to supporting the efforts of the GoSS in the coming period. We must work together, however, to ensure that all resources, be they government's own or donor, are used judiciously. 2007 is undoubtedly a critical year for the CPA. As agreed in Khartoum yesterday, a lot remains to be done to deliver a real peace dividend, and to make unity attractive. The Joint Donor Partners stand committed to assist the GoSS in its mission to ensure that 2007 is a Year of Delivery. We sincerely hope that 2007 will be the year when the foundations for sustainable peace and development in Southern Sudan become embedded, to the extent that the peace itself becomes unshakeable. This is a major challenge for government and its partners, but it is one that we believe is not beyond our collective reach. Joint Donor Team Statement (1): Budget, PFM and Planning We commend Your Excellency the President of Southern Sudan and the GoSS for the strong first steps made in 2005 and 2006 to create the basis of a functioning government, as clearly evidenced in the comprehensive report made by the GoSS to the Sudan Consortium yesterday. 1
The presentations amply illustrate the complex barriers to bringing about the "Year of Delivery" that GoSS has committed to. The GoSS is now at a critically important juncture. It can continue what it has begun, reinforces and expands the systems it has created, feeds the lessons so far into a cycle of constant improvement, and most importantly, communicates the behaviours of planning, budgeting and responsible use of funds throughout the public service, it can become a model for the region: a truly effective public service built from the ground up. But at the same time we are painfully aware of other African countries that have been blessed with revenue from abundant natural resources, but which has been misused and wasted. There is still a very real risk that this could happen in Southern Sudan. We must redouble our efforts - GoSS and international development partners together - to ensure bad practice does not take root. During its first year, the Joint Donor Team has worked closely with GoSS in the area of planning, budgeting and public financial management. We were closely involved in supporting the GoSS 3-Year budget planning exercise, have provided technical assistance and Financial Management training. We would like to highlight a number of areas which we consider need to be given priority in 2007: 1) It will be important to reinforce the Budget Sector Planning process, with the 3-year Sectoral priorities clearly feeding into the annual budget process, and instilling in Ministries a culture of planning, and implementing, well-focused budgets. 2) The newly appointed Procurement Agent will need adequate capacity, resources, and strong political back-p to be able to fulfill its mandate. 3) There is a need to ensure that budgets for line ministries are being allocated based on realistic plans for spending, and that budgets are adhered to. 4) It is a high risk strategy for Southern Sudan to be almost entirely dependent on oil revenue. We strongly support the MOFEP's attempts to start rebuilding reserves, and urge the government to plan for non-oil based economic growth. 5) Military expenditure, as 40% of the budget, needs to be subjected to the same levels of scrutiny as the budget as a whole. 6) GoSS has spoken of creating a "Public Service Culture". Efforts in this area will need to be considerably expanded. 7) In 2006, the GoSS exceeded its salaries budget by 100%. Urgent action will be needed to ensure the wage bill does not run out of control. 8) 2007 needs to be the year that DDR takes off. We welcome the strong political commitment made to this by the GoSS through the Vice- President at the recent DDR Workshop. All the parties involved need to demonstrate strong commitment and to ensure effective coordination of effort. 9) Returns remain a critical issue. Planning this year has been thorough, including by central and state authorities, which we welcome. It is 2
crucial to successful returns that basic services are in place to receive returnees. 10) 2007 also needs to be the year of reaching beyond GoSS to help state and local government to meet their responsibilities in delivering to the people. NGOs have a key role to playas partners in service delivery, and we commend the GoSS for steps taken to create an enabling environment for NGOs to operate, as acknowledged by the representative of the INGOs in his remarks yesterday. Finally, we would like to say a few words on the MDTF. The Joint Donor Partners are the major funders of the MDTF for Southern Sudan, and will continue to provide significant financial support to the MDTF. During 2006, GoSS and the World Bank both deserve credit for their work to get the MDTF moving, and we believe in 2007 this will start to show real results. We also commit to continuing to use our role as Co-chair of the Oversight Committee to work for effective MDTF delivery for the people of Southern Sudan We as donors need to consider additional support to complement the MDTF's long term focus, and to work closelywith GoSS to identifythe key needs.as acknowledged yesterday, capacity-building is a major area of need at all levels. The Joint Donor Team is currently identifying areas where it can best be of assistance and is working with GoSS to finalise proposals to scale up support to complement the MDTF, including potentially through an expansion of the Capacity-Building Trust Fund. Joint Donor Team Statement (2): Checks and Balances This has been an important session, exploring the role of key institutions and processes. We as the Joint Donor Team wish to strongly commend the strong initial steps taken by the GoSS to build effective mechanisms for transparency and accountability. It is encouraging to hear all the work that is underway in the Legislative Assembly and the Commissions. We warmly welcome the detailed scrutiny that the Legislative Assembly has given this year's budget. However, we would like to highlight the recommendations from last year's Consortium and from MoFEP that GoSS needs to develop a robust policy on financial reserves, given Southern Sudan's current reliance on oil revenue. We very much hope that the Assembly and MoFEP can work together closely to ensure that any proposed increases in expenditure are set against their consequences for the Government's balance sheet. As Ministries have not been able to spend all their budgets last year, this seems like an ideal time to be saving the unspent funds for future contingencies. The President has already demonstrated clear commitment and leadership in tackling corruption. The work of the newly established Anti-Corruption Commission has got off to a good start with limited resources, and we congratulate Dr Riak and her staff for this. The previous session emphasized the strong work underway to build up the underlying systems which prevent 3
corruption: procurement, financial management, training. So we hope that Dr Riak will not have too much to do! We urge GoSS to ensure the Anti- Corruption Commission has the access and resources it needs to do its job. The review of procurement that the President has requested is an excellent start. It is essential for the credibility of the process that no-one is perceived to be above investigation. The JOT has worked closely with GoSS and other development partners in identifying the support needs of the Commissions and ways for these to be met, including ensuring that adequate accommodation is put in place using MDTF funding. JOT partners have provided funding for training to Parliamentarians and Parliamentary officials at GoSS and state level. Strengthening accountability will also be a major theme of the new Joint Donor Assistance Strategy for 2007-2009, due to be released in May. We therefore look forward to working more closely in this area in the future. Finally, we are all in agreement that the Census and elections will be critical to the CPA's success. Not just that they happen, but also that people accept the results. Work must start now to prepare the populations in North and South, and to build the political party system, so people feel they have a real choice at election time. Joint Donor Team Statement (3) Aid Co-ordination and Delivery We as the Joint Donor Team partners would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the GoSS once more for the leadership role it has taken on donor co-ordination and Government-led planning. The presentation underlines how much has already been achieved, and we would suggest that Southern Sudan is already becoming a model for other post-conflict countries. The presentation also highlights the remaining challenges, particularly the flexibility that is required from donors if they are to be truly useful. The development partners clearly need to be willing to work closely and flexibly with government to build basic systems that are fit for purpose, making adequate investments of time for policy dialogue, and modifying strategies constantly to fit the emerging circumstances. It was with this in mind that our five countries set up the Joint Donor Team. After nearly a year of operation, we are currently reviewing our progress and developing a Joint Donor Assistance Strategy that will take us to the end of 2009. We have consulted with many of you as we prepared the strategy, we now look forward to sharing the final strategy with you by the end of May. We have learnt a lot during our first year of operation, and are using this learning to make sure that the JOT is focused on relevant areas, has well-defined intervention strategies, and is well-resourced to meet the significant needs and challenges in Southern Sudan. We are aware that we need to ensure strong alignment with the strategies of other development partners, and look forward to moving together in due course towards a fully joined up Donor Strategy in support of GoSS's own Development and Poverty Reduction Plan. 4
The presentation has made clear that the Budget Sector Working Groups are now set to grow into the mainstay of both government planning and donor coordination, forming the basis of a Government-owned development framework, clearly linking to the budget process. We will continue to work closely with MoFEP and the various sector groups. We welcome the GoSS's assessment of the resource requirements to expand the role of the BSWGs, and stand ready to provide technical and financial support as necessary. We stand ready to work closely with MOFEP to help operationalise the Aid Strategy. Donors have all welcomed the document and expressed their willingness to use it to guide their work. But there is consensus that this will have to come about through a process of dialogue and adaptation. Finally, we take the Government's point on the importance of predictability. Although we are not in a position to make firm commitments for future financing today we would like to reaffirm that we are signed up to both the letter and the spirit of Oslo and of Paris. We have delivered all our Oslo pledges so far and we do not intend to stop there. Our team in Juba are already currently working on ways to make sure that the Joint Donor partnership complies with the requirements of the Aid Strategy, and the JOT commits itself to playa strong role in nurturing the international development community as a whole to do likewise.