UPDATE ON HARMONISATION ACTION PLAN FOR THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SECTOR

1. Ministerul Muncii, Protecţiei Sociale şi Familiei al Republicii Moldova UPDATE ON HARMONISATION ACTION PLAN FOR THE SOCIAL PROTECTION SECTOR Coordinating Board for Foreign Assistance in Labour and Social Protection 10 June 2010

2. Introduction • Harmonisation Action Plan (HAP) considered by predecessor group (Social Protection Coordinating Group - SPCG) in November 2009 • Emphasised role of SPCG as focus for dialogue, monitoring progress and coordinating donor support to sector in line with Ministry priorities, and proposed some developments to make it more effective • SPCG superseded by Coordination Board for Foreign Assistance in the Labour and Social Protection Sector, February 2010 (CB), in line with the Government Decision • Paper on Developing Donor Coordination considered implications of change of status and made some proposals to help ensure new group fulfilled role envisaged in HAP

3. Specific issues • Some specific issues mentioned - for Ministry and partners to decide on, but important technical elements of donor coordination machinery: • Sub-groups: • SPCG Terms of Reference allowed for sub-groups but none set up • more urgent now given larger membership of CB • proposals considered later on this agenda • Donor dialogue: • HAP identified need to strengthen donor-donor dialogue (clear common positions, better coordination of activities) • core donors now meet for preliminary discussions, convened by Vice-Chair

4. Specific issues (cont) • Wider membership: • desirability of widening dialogue to include other partners in sector (NGOs, local public administration) considered several times by SPCG • practical difficulties in ensuring representative membership (very large numbers of NGOs, political affiliation of local authorities) • sub-group structure may help identification of suitable members in relation to particular issues, projects, pilots • Planning: • planning of foreign assistance projects and programmes and development of sector expenditure strategies which integrate donor and Government funding key part of CB role • sector programming document critical to effective planning and central element of HAP (format discussed in more detail below)

5. Specific issues (cont) • Monitoring: • also a key part of CB role, and of HAP • format should reflect that of sector programming document (which needs to be finalised first) • will need donors to provide updated information on projects they are supporting on regular basis (quarterly?) • Partnership: • emphasised in Government Decision on coordinating foreign assistance, and in HAP • draft Statement of Intent (revised version attached to paper) reinforces partnership principles • also emphasises the Ministry’s leadership role in the sector and the need for donors to align with Government priorities

6. Sector programme document • Revised draft format circulated with paper • Need is to present and integrate 6 different items of information: • strategic policy objectives • MTEF programmes • principal activities • associated donor projects/programmes • key output/outcome indicators • planned expenditure

7. Sector programme document (cont) • Integration needed to: • show what resources are being devoted to each strategic objectives • to identify under-resourced critical activities or areas of over-concentration of foreign assistance • plan future interventions in support of Ministry priorities • Working with Ministry to improve the format and add information, but suggestions welcome

8. Sector programme document: notes on format • Objectives are as proposed in HAP – compiled from various sources (NDS, NDS Action Plan, MTEF, Institutional Development Plan, Minister Buliga’s statement of priorities. Not definitive; workshop or retreat to consider and improve these might be useful first step in development of a new sector strategy • MTEF programmesreflect text proposedfor 2011-13 MTEF (sector strategic expenditure plan), but do not align well with strategic objectives as stated here • Activities drawn from MTEF, NDS Action Plan, etc but need to be expanded and refined – especially to show any currently unfunded tasks that are critical to the objectives

9. Sector programme document: notes on format (cont) • Projects – have circulated list of live donor projects with request for any further corrections; can fill in rest of framework with up to date information • Indicators not yet complete – drawn from ongoing work on developing M&E of integrated system of social services; will need to reflect both Ministry and donor requirements for monitoring and accountability • Expenditure breakdown by activity within MTEF programmes unlikely to be possible in short term, but desirable

10. Conclusion • Specific issues concerning the operation of the Coordinating Board are for the Ministry and partners to decide • Paper simply points out those which are technically important to good donor coordination machinery • Key document remains the sector programme document (and monitoring format derived from it) – work in progress with Ministry • Objectives shown in draft programme may need to be refined to represent any new sector strategy that the Ministry formulates