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Strengthening Results Based Management in Support of Poverty Reduction in Tajikistan

Opening Remarks by
Makoto Ojiro
Country Director
Tajikistan Resident Mission
Asian Development Bank

At the Final Workshop - TA 4860

13 March 2009
Dushanbe, Tajikistan

I would like to welcome participants to the final workshop "Building on Progress in the Monitoring System for the Poverty Reduction Strategy and Looking Forward to the Development of the draft PRS for 2010-2012" under the ADB TA 4860 " Strengthening Results Based Management in Support of Poverty Reduction in Tajikistan".

Why and how we came to support the Government of Tajikistan on strengthening M&E of the PRS?

MfDR requires sustainable country capacities in strategic planning, public financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and statistical reporting. In consonance with ADB's enhanced Poverty Reduction Strategy, which has adopted capacity development as a new priority, ADB assists in developing MfDR capacity in its developing member countries by:

• Providing technical assistance to introduce MfDR techniques, strengthen results orientation of public sector management, and develop statistical capacity
• Engaging DMC participation in awareness and learning initiatives
• Facilitating knowledge sharing at the regional level through a Community of Practice
• In addition, a Cooperation Fund was established in ADB to support pilot DMC initiatives aimed at promoting the adoption of results-based approaches and techniques in public sector management.

Tajikistan was in the process of developing a ten-year National Development Strategy (NDS) and a medium term Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). The process of preparation of the NDS and PRS provide a unique entry point for strengthening the results management capacities of the Government. Developing and implementing a realistic, useful and coherent results management system is a major priority of the Government and is of paramount importance in guiding the formulation of policies and better prioritization of public expenditure to respond to the country's development needs.

Donor Coordination during design and implementation was in line with Paris Declaration. Following Management approval of the TA concept in June 2006, ADB pursued joint approaches and commitments by donors to assist the Government in strengthening results management system in the public sector. As a result a consortium of four donors including ADB, EC, SIDA and DFID emerged. Other key donors including World Bank strongly support the consortium. The ADB TA and EC TA were designed and implemented jointly. The TA also was coordinating with other donors projects like MTEF, TAJ stat and etc.

Government ownership was the key principle. During TA design and joint fact finding mission the Government's ownership of the TA was confirmed during the meetings, especially with senior government officials. Government was undertaking structural reforms that made it possible for it to seriously consider adopting results-based monitoring tools. These reforms included the Public Administration Reform Strategy, which aims to streamline Government structure, strengthen and decentralize power to line ministries and local Governments and become more results focused. Preparation of NDS and PRS, formulation and implementation of Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), reorganization of key ministries and agencies, and strengthening the State Financial Control Committee (SFCC) and National Statistical Systems were the interlinked components of the Government's public administration reform agenda. State Statistical Committee (SSC) has inherited weak methodological skills of the Soviet system which is not geared to collect poverty and development indicators. The SSC therefore is building up skills and realigning data collection activities with the donors' assistance.

The Government wrote 2007 Annual Progress Report - the major M&E output - for the first time. However, there were challenges like donor driven PRS with huge unrealistic matrixes, crisis situations in the country and instability among government staff working with PRS monitoring.

We should applaud the Government but not be complacent with the progress and understand that building the capacity takes time, even for developed countries and institutions like ADB (15-20 years).

Thank you for your attention. I wish the participants success in today's deliberations.