Making National Chapters Useful in Our Countries

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Permalink Reply by Solomon Mhlanga on December 7, 2011 at 6:16am

Hello Joshua,

I would like to congratulate you for starting up this discussion on National Chapters on MfDR.

I see two important medium term objectives of a national chapter. The first one would be to have a fuctional national chapter on the ground and this is not easy to establish mainly because members are people who are participarting voluntarily. These individuals whether they are from Government or from the private sector have got their work to do so to devote time to national chapter activities needs a lot of commitment. The second objective would be to ensure that the work of the national chapters contributes to national development processes.

In order to establish links with public administration processes, it will be important for the African Development Bank to facilitatate as is at the centre of MfDR promotion in Africa. It will be a tall order if national chapters were to try and work themselves into government systems if they are not introduced by an authority like the AFDB.

The relevance of a national chapter comes from the fact that the issues we are grappling with have been agreed to from the Paris Declaration  in 2005 to the Acraa Agenda for Action in 2008  and now most recently at the  Busan 4th High Level Conference on Aid Effectiveness  which was held  in South Korea from 29 November to 1  December 2011.  The issue of ensuring the achievement of Results by developing countries came out as one of the key principles that were adopted. National chapters should therefore ensure that they bring in the MFDR tools to assist the public sector to do its work.

Regarding the way forward after Busan, processes will soon be initiated to convene reprentantives of all countries  and stakeholders who endorsed the Busan Document for purposes of coming up with a working arrangement on this Global Partnership.  It will be critical for national chapters to be involved in these working arrangements which will come up with the road map to be followed at the Global level as we move towards the MDG target date of 2015. Once we get involved in those working arrangements, we will now be moving with the center of gravity as far as MfDR issues are concerned.  I am hereby urging members to download the BUSAN PARTNERSHIP FOR EFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION on www.aideffectiveness.org/busanhlf4 

 

In order to capacitate our members, we need to run well structured training programmes on MfDR tools that can help governments to come up with MfDR compliant systems of development planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation at the national level.

 

Note that it is not easy to exhaust all issues online.

Regards

 

Solomon Mhlanga 

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Mwiranga on December 13, 2011 at 12:46pm

Dear Solomon,

Thank you very much for your comprehensive contribution and for responding to most questions. Kindly accept my apologies for late response due to the fact that i have been out of office for over a couple of weeks.

You are right in your observation that commitment from members of the national chapter is critical for them to contribute to national development process. This is necessary to carry the MfDR agenda forward.  It is suggested that since AfDB is involved in promoting MfDR in the continent, they be involved or facilitate links with public administration at the national level.  Could you expound on the kind/nature of envisaged facilitation? Is there a way that practitioners can establish this link with public administration structures at national level considering that they come from public, private, academia and other sectors in the country? 

Considering that the initiatives being pursued have been agreed upon in international/global level and the fact that national chapters have a vital role to play in designing the road map, implementation and follow-up (as you correctly pointed out), in what way can we improve the role that the national chapters are playing and entrench it in the entire process and in improving development governance?  In your opinion, where capacity exists in national chapters, is it utilized effectively?

I like your proposal for a well structured training programme on MfDR tools.  Do you consider it necessary to conduct a needs assessment to inform on the area of training or do think national chapters know what the target group wants?

In Kenya for example, the national chapter (KCoP) is invited to participate in national MfDR forums.  The challenge has been participation of most practitioners particularly from the civil society and private sector.  However, the few who are committed from these sectors participate actively in MfDR initiatives.  KCoP has developed a questionnaire to be used in identifying the gaps. 

Once again, thank you for your contribution and for sharing the document – Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation.

Regards,

Joshua

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Permalink Reply by Tayani Vincent Banda on December 13, 2011 at 4:01am

This is a god discussion Joshua. I think it is pertinent for countires lika Malawi that do not have  National Chapters yet.

I think the discussion can also start from discussing the very basics, like how do you moilie like minded people and concerned pple to come together in formulating a national chapter through discussion of relevant topics, how to include and obtain buy in from the onset (not only of senior people) but people that are really making things happen. To me a start with online discussionscan be one way to commence and see that you bring together like minded people....I dont know what you think of this....

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Permalink Reply by Mwiranga on December 13, 2011 at 1:23pm

Dear Tayani,

Thank you for appreciating this discussion and for raising these concerns. Like most successful initiatives, leadership is critical - someone has to take the initiative, design (come up with) the approach taking into account the operating environment and identify, as you noted, "like-minded people and those who can make things happen" then share your vision with them.

AfCoP has offered a good forum to begin with, the annual meetings, discussion forums, mobilizing support e.t.c.  Are there active AfCoP members from Malawi? Is there a senior and influential Government officer(s) who can buy the idea and support it? Can somebody organize or support a brief get-together of possible like-minded players to brain-storm on how you can start a national chapter? Even the online discussion will require somebody to lead it.

The small team once formed develops and refines the concept (and you can get support from the AfCoP Secretariat) as a starting point. 

Members, help Tayani get basics of starting a national chapter.

Regards,

Joshua

 

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