Donors’ Meeting ON EAST TIMOR, OSLO, 11-12 December 2001
Statement by Mr. Finn Reske-Nielsen, UN Development Coordinator,
Session on Transition Planning and Institution Building
Tuesday 11 December 2001
Mr. Chairman,
It is indeed an honour for me to once again address the donors’ meeting on East Timor on behalf of the UN agencies, funds and programmes. I am happy to note that the close collaboration amongst all the agencies and between the agencies and UNTAET, which has characterised the operations in East Timor from the very beginning, has been strengthened further since we last met.
All the agencies have continued to consolidate their partnerships with the East Timorese government and I think it is fair to say that we are very close to a situation which resembles that of any other developing country where each agency, within its available resources, is playing its normal developmental role. This should help secure a smooth transition to independence with the agencies being well positioned to support nation building and capacity development.
The preparation of the first United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) is scheduled to start early next year within the overall context of the ongoing national planning development efforts. The UNDAF is therefore expected to form the umbrella for the post-independence programmes of all the agencies in support of the government’s development plan. It will also help strengthen the important task of aid coordination in an independent East Timor.
The UN Development Coordinator, on behalf of the agencies, funds and programmes, continues to be a full member of the various transition mechanisms, which have been established to ensure a smooth transition to full independence and the envisaged successor mission to UNTAET.
Over the past year or so, the UN agencies have further strengthened their support for capacity development including policy development, institution building and training. Assistance has been provided to define the needs for effective public sector management resulting in the Cabinet formally endorsing the framework for capacity development for public sector management, which comprises 75 discrete project outlines for the short, medium and long term. In parallel, the agencies have provided support to the process of identifying the 100 or so positions required to ensure the stability of the government after independence, which may be included in the envisaged successor mission to UNTAET. Work is also under way to define the corresponding “development” positions required (primarily) in the sectoral ministries.
In the sectoral areas, the UN agencies have focused on a wide range of activities. These included the establishment of a human resources database and training for officials in the Department of Health; vocational training, small business management and livestock care for ex-FALINTIL fighters; institutional support to the Office of the Inspector-General; empowerment workshops for 145 women who stood for election to the Constituent Assembly; and various training activities for relevant staff in the field of reproductive health.
The agencies are all determined to further deepen their partnerships with the government of East Timor in the coming months and after independence. Indeed, we would expect that after independence the main vehicle for the development assistance of the UN system will be the agencies. The activities of the agencies will be coordinated by the Resident Coordinator, who, as you know, is also expected to assume the functions of Deputy SRSG, thus ensuring critical coordination of all the work of the UN system post-independence.
Mr. Chairman,
Much has been achieved over the past two years as highlighted in the background paper for this meeting. However, as the Transitional Administrator noted in his presentation a lot still remains to be accomplished between now and independence and, indeed, beyond. There is still no firm economic foundation to finance sustainable development in the short to medium term; government institutions are still fragile and are focused primarily at the central level with little attention being given the devolution of authority to the local levels; and access to quality social services, including basic education and health, is still a long way from being optimal. This further underscores the need for effective transition planning and institutional development as well as national planning. In this regard, I believe we all agree that the guiding principle must be poverty reduction and protection of the poor, in particularly vulnerable groups such as women and children. One of the most important ways of addressing these fundamental development issues is to invest in human resources and develop the institutions required to support the development process.
A critical component of this is the 100 mentoring and, to a lesser extent, line positions envisaged to be funded from assessed contributions as part of the post-UNTAET mission. The work to prepare the job descriptions for these positions is ongoing, in a process led by the government with technical support from UNDP. The complete set of job descriptions is expected to be in place at the latest by mid-January 2002 and will feed into the UN budgeting process for the post-UNTAET mission. A key issue will be to reach agreement on a mechanism for the management of this civilian support component. Here an appropriate balance should be found between ensuring full integration into government structures while at the same time maintaining full accountability to and by the United Nations. Proper systems will also have to be in place to make sure that individuals with the right technical, linguistic and personal profiles are recruited against agreed positions and to monitor performance on a regular basis to ensure that effective transfer of skills and knowledge takes place and real capacity therefore is built. A proposal in this regard is currently under review by the relevant interested parties.
In addition to the 100 posts, it is envisaged that up to 200 “development” posts will be required for the short to medium term. These positions will be complementary to ongoing capacity development efforts, particularly in education, health and agriculture as well as finance and internal administration. Work on the precise definition of these posts is ongoing as we speak – again in a process led by the government – and the results are expected to be out at the latest by the end of January 2002. It is premature to report back on the precise number and areas to be covered through this programme, which – needles to say - will require strong donor support. A particular problem, which may be encountered, is that some positions may be more attractive to donors whereas others may be less attractive even if from an overall development perspective they may be equally important. One would hope that the necessary flexibility will be exercised to resolve any such problems.
This programme, which will take fully into account ongoing and planned support by donors and other development partners, is expected to be provided through a variety of different bilateral and multilateral channels. Nevertheless, I believe consideration should be given to the feasibility of establishing an umbrella programme for which donor contributions would be sought and which could serve as a “central” vehicle for UN agencies to access funding for the required sectoral personnel, as requested by the government. As in the case of the 100 posts, an appropriate system to deal with selection, recruitment and performance management would need to be agreed upon, should such a programme be established.
A critical part of the mentoring expected of international advisers would have to be the establishment of a set of objectives and benchmarks, which would allow for continuous monitoring of this aspect of performance over the entire contract period. These objectives and benchmarks would need to be agreed upon not only at the institutional level but also by the mentor and the mentee themselves in order to ensure the required commitment on both sides. It should, I believe, also be a formal requirement that all mentors undergo an orientation course in Dili before assuming duties in order to ensure that everyone will have the same understanding of and approach to mentoring.
One critical matter that needs to be addressed in the context of capacity development is the issue of language. As I said in my statement in Canberra last June, it is clearly a matter for the East Timorese to decide what language or languages they want to speak. However, any language policy will cost money, will take time to implement and will invariably reduce the time that public servants have available for their “substantive” tasks. We therefore have to recognise that the language issue will have a significant impact on the public administration, particularly in the short and medium term. Earlier this year, UNDP tried to estimate the cost of interpretation, translation and language training in the public service and reached the tentative conclusion that there would be a need for 21 interpreters and 40 language teachers for a period of 2-3 years at a total estimated cost of at least US$ 2.5 million per year. In addition, UNDP estimated that the annual cost of translation of documents would be between US$ 1.0 and 3.0 million. I would encourage the Council of Ministers to develop a detailed language policy including precise implementation and funding arrangements as a matter of priority.
Mr. Chairman,
The provision of 100 “stability” and up to 200 “development” posts would constitute a critical part of but would not be sufficient to solve all the capacity development challenges of an independent East Timor. Accordingly, a clear link into the overall programme for public sector management and programmes of support to sectoral and other departments will have to be established as soon as these posts have been identified in order that the various interventions can be properly coordinated. In this regard, all mentors would play a key role in ensuring that upon completion of any training on the part of their mentees, the newly acquired competencies will be applied in the daily work.
There has been keen donor interest in the programme for capacity development for public sector management and more than half of the 75 priority projects and all those falling in the “critical” category appear to be covered. The Capacity Development Coordination Unit (CDCU), which was set up within the now defunct National Planning and Development Agency after the Canberra conference, has already done a great deal but is currently at a crossroads in its operations in as much as a formal decision needs to be made by the government in order to ensure continuity of the work already undertaken by this unit. The UN agencies agree with the background paper that it is essential that CDCU be officially established as a unit of the government, that appropriate nationals are assigned to it and that it is provided with an operational budget. Without adequate institutional capacity, at the appropriate level, it would be difficult, if not impossible to coordinate the myriad of capacity development activities which are currently being undertaken and which undoubtedly will expand further after independence. Unless great care is taken, the government may find itself in a situation where it has lost control of the whole capacity development process, which again may lead to wasted resources, lack of focus on priority areas and the absence of common systems and benchmarks.
The development needs of East Timor continue to be vast and the country will have to rely on the generosity of the international community for some time to come not just to keep the wheels of government running but to embark upon the long road of sustainable development leading to the betterment of the lives of the people of East Timor. Independence may be an end in itself but it should also be an important means to ensuring that real development with equity occurs.
In this regard, we have to be realistic: The international community has been extremely generous so far but there are other demands on shrinking donor resources and East Timor can not expect that financial and other support will continue to flow as freely as it has over the past two years. At the same time, I am certain that the new independent nation would wish to increasingly resume responsibility itself for its development by funding priority activities from its own resources. With declining resources it becomes even more important for the government to have in place appropriate institutions, including the CDCU, to ensure that scarce funding is applied to priority areas in a cost-effective manner.
The bottom line is that available resources are finite and that very soon some difficult decisions will have to be taken by the government to establish what its development priorities are and how they can be financed. In this regard, I am sure that the government will proceed with caution, taking fully into account the long-term financial sustainability of any development effort. In the final analysis, there will not be enough money to fund all priority needs and hard choices will have to be made. That is the nature of government but there is no doubt in my mind that the East Timorese will prove themselves superbly capable in this area as well.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.