Trends in Development Frameworks in African Countries: A Closer Look at MDGs-Based Planning

1. Trends in Development Frameworks in African Countries: A Closer Look at MDGs-Based Planning Economic Development and NEPAD Division MDGs & LDCs Section Workshop on Institutional and Strategic Frameworks for Sustainable Development in Africa Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9 March 2011

2. Outline • Poverty Reduction Strategies • MDGs-based Planning • MDGs-based Planning in Ethiopia • MDGs-based Planning in Nigeria • Implications for other countries • Next Steps

3. Poverty Reduction Strategies(PRS) • PRS approach was initiated by the IMF and World Bank in 1999 • Importance of country ownership of reform programs and need for a greater focus on poverty reduction • Five core principles underlie the PRS approach • Country-driven • Result-oriented • Comprehensive • Partnership-oriented • Long-term perspective

4. MDGs-based Planning • Initiated at the UN World Summit and Mid-term Review of Progress towards the MDGs in 2005 • World leaders resolved that countries with extreme poverty adopt and begin to implement MDGs-based poverty reduction strategies/national development plans • Four stages on how to integrate MDGs in NPRS: • Assessment • Policy-making • Implementation • Monitoring

5. MDGs-based Planning Cont’d • UNECA has initiated multi-country studies to analyze experiences and lessons of MDGs-based planning in 10 African countries • Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania • Country studies have four main areas • Vision • Medium-term strategy • Sub-national dimensions/localization • Monitoring and evaluation

6. MDG-Based Planning: Ethiopia – Background • Government has demonstrated strong ownership of development policies and strategies • MDGs are formally adapted as a framework for design of national MT development strategies and programs • Various problems that pose serious threats to progress toward achieving MDGs (environmental degradation, weak implementation capacity, dependence on aid, global crises) • Ethiopia focusing on macroeconomic conditions for achieving MDGs and aggressive strategies to mobilize domestic resource for financing

7. MDGs-based Planning: Ethiopia – Findings • Ethiopia meets and surpasses all parameters of MDG-based Planning • Ambitious, Needs Assessment, Assessment of Financing Scenarios and setting development targets aligned to MDGs • Financial requirement to achieve MDGs is beyond local capacity – adapted different approaches to address this • Focused institutional reforms • Increased attention to domestic resource mobilization • Continuing civil service reform • Enacting fiscal and administrative decentralization • Rationalization and accountability of budget • Improving efficiency of basic service delivery

8. MDGs-based Planning: Ethiopia – Findings • Continuous information on status of MDGs through integrating MDG monitoring with existing development monitoring systems • Baseline situation analysis and forecast into future • Assessment of inter-linkage among indicators • Cost implication of data collection • Identifying ways to address challenges • Identifying alternative indicators that are less expensive to collect • Evaluation in practice is more of a donors’ agenda • Drive to reach MDGs has not always been even • Disparities across gender, income groups, and Regions

9. MDGs-based Planning: Ethiopia – Policy Implications • Highlights importance of government commitment to MDGs and adopting a Needs Assessment, 10-year plan, and MT Plan • Improvements in M&E are essential in making progress toward MDGs • Donors and civil society participation in PRSP process should be continuous and institutionalized to bring sustained results • MT strategies need to adapt to shifting local, national and global conditions

10. MDGs-based Planning: Nigeria – Background • Nigeria already had the equivalent of PRS – the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) by 2005. • Study examined alignment of NEEDS and other planning processes with MDGs-based planning framework. • NEEDS lacked the essential bottom-up planning architecture that should underpin the national development plan process • NEEDS enunciated a wide range of MDGs-friendly fiscal and institutional reforms.

11. MDGs-based Planning: Nigeria – Findings • MDGs coordination and monitoring system is weak and disjointed • Institutional and capacity weaknesses impede alignment of NEEDS with MDGs-based planning • Poor data quality has hindered MDGs-based planning and monitoring • MDGs Progress Reports do not link performance to amount of public spending and outputs generated • OPEN initiative and debt relief from Paris Club was critical turning point for MDGs-based planning

12. MDGs-based Planning: Nigeria – Policy Implications • Need for better incorporation of MDGs-based planning into existing national policies. • Need for better monitoring of progress toward MDGs. • Need for a logical framework that connects outputs, outcomes and impact. • Capacity constraints must be addressed to improve alignment of NEEDS with MDGs-based planning. • Capacity must be improved at the subnational level so that policymakers rely less on federal government.

13. Implications for Other Countries • Countries should find a way to integrate MDGs-based planning into existing development strategies • Important to focus on 4 stages of MDGs-based planning (Assessment, policy-making, implementation, and monitoring) • Strong government commitment and financing is essential in implementing MDGs-based planning • Countries can learn from the experiences of ten country case studies

14. Next Steps • EDND is facilitating the adoption of MDGs-Based Planning Curricula for other countries to adopt • Inception workshop will be held in Addis Ababa the 2nd week of April • Sub-Regional workshops will be held from May-August in East, Southern, and Western Africa

15. Thank you! For more information please contact: Ms. Julianne Deitch (jdeitch@uneca.org) or Ms. Chrystelle Tsafack (ctsafack@uneca.org)