At international workshop…
MINISTER of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, has acknowledged the contribution of the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) programme, through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), in Guyana’s development efforts.

He said the bank is a good example of a responsive and relevant development partner.

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh addresses the workshop.

Singh was speaking at the start of a three-day workshop, hosted by the CDB and the Government of Guyana, at Princess Hotel, Providence, East Bank Demerara, on Tuesday.

Participants are also from Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and will be followed up by a national training exercise January 25 to 26.

Singh, delivering the feature address, said he was pleased to participate in the CDB’s BNTF VI programme – Management for Development Results training workshop – and that Guyana was able to host it.

He noted the very special character of the BNTF scheme and the immediate and direct relevance of the workshop subject and the implicit theme of effectiveness in implementation.

Alluding to the special nature of the BNTF project, he mentioned that Guyana is currently the largest beneficiary of it.

Singh disclosed that, under the BNTF V, Guyana benefitted from US$13.2M in resources and that was augmented by a counterpart contribution of US$3.3M, which saw the implementation of a programme costing US$16.5M.

He recalled that some of the sub-projects implemented were in keeping with the character of BNTF, noting: “Every sub-project addressed meeting a critical social need in a vulnerable community in Guyana.”

Singh cited examples such as water supply, in areas including Meadow Bank, Agricola and Grove/Diamond, education, roads, health and commerce, like developing market infrastructures.

He acknowledged that the CDB contributes to Guyana’s development and mentioned, as well, the contribution made by the Government and people of Canada, being a very significant contributor to BNTF in recent years.

Singh explained that Guyana qualified under the last phase for a bonus of US$3M and emphasised that the eligibility for it was based on performance of the BNTF portfolio.

“We only qualified for this bonus as a result of strong performance of our existing portfolio and I make this point because development resources are very scarce and, increasingly, donors are moving towards performance based allocation assistance.

Incumbent
“And we, as Guyanese, whether as citizens or officials, could not possibly be insensitive to the need for additional development resources and it is, therefore, incumbent upon us to exert every possible effort to ensure that every single programme or project under our responsibility is implemented in as timely a fashion and as effective a fashion as possible,” he remarked.

Singh said he made the point because he believes that BNTF in Guyana has been a good example in this regard.

He noted the participation of the communities in ensuring the success of the BNTF projects in Guyana, as they are also critical to assuring that, particularly in the identification stage, projects that will have the maximum development impact are chosen.

“More generally, the bank has been, certainly in Guyana and throughout the region, a good example of the responsive and relevant development partner,” he reiterated.

Singh said responsiveness and relevance have indeed been outstanding characteristics of the CDB and one has only to look at recent developments in Haiti to recognise this.

He remembered welcoming Haiti’s accession to membership of the CDB and said the bank has been very active in that country since then, approving grants in excess of US$30M for the benefit of Haitians.

However, Singh said, subsequent to those developments, the devastating tragedy of the recent earthquake struck and the bank has not failed in its duty to be responsive immediately.

“I wish to assure the Government and people of Haiti that our thoughts are with them and that they can be assured that we will spare absolutely no effort in mobilising and delivering relief to them in as timely a manner as possible,” he said.

Referring to the relevance of the subject matter to be addressed by the workshop, Singh reflected on the New Year address by President Bharrat Jagdeo, to illustrate how strongly the Government feels about the issue.

He said the Head of State spoke of the social sector in which emphasis will continue to be placed on improving quality of service, value for money and greater accountability to the public.

“We believe, as a Government, that the objective of maximising the e
ffectiveness of our development efforts is and, indeed, must be paramount,” the Minister asserted.

He pointed out that the Government has increased its expenditure in the social sector and, in a very dramatic fashion, constructed educational facilities throughout the length and breadth of the country and provides basic health care services to the communities.

“…but, having extended this effort, we are mindful of the need to ensure that these facilities are used and managed in an optimal fashion and in as effective a fashion as possible,” Singh said.

He said Guyana is no different from any other country in the region and resources continue to be extremely scarce.

Essential
“Hence, it is absolutely essential that every dollar is spent as effectively as possibly.

“And when we speak of management for development results…for every public sector manager, the subject of effectiveness is relevant at every stage of the projects,” Singh maintained.

He said, from the stage of project identification, if the development impacts of the projects are to be maximised, it is important to be mindful of the development impacts.

“As we go through the project cycle in designing our projects, it is equally important that we are attentive to design those that will optimise development impact,” Singh underscored.

He went on: “Certainly, as we execute projects, it is important that we are attentive to effectiveness, also.”

About the need for the implementation in a more timely fashion, Singh recalled that, last year, a meeting was held with consultants and contractors, where they were reminded of their contractual obligation to execute the works in a timely manner and the intention to impose the penalties that are provided for under those contracts.

In welcome and opening remarks, Acting Project Manager of BNTF in Guyana, Mr. Michael Singh spoke, too, about the importance of managing for development results.

“…we are motivated by our excellent track record in BNTF V, where we received a mid-term bonus of over US$3M and look forward for even greater results and impact in reaching our target in the BNTF VI programme,” he said.

He welcomed the new funding from CDB for BNTF VI and gave the assurance that the team understands the additional responsibility, challenges and enormous task ahead to commit all the funds and implement sub-projects in a shorter time compared to BNTF V.

Manager Singh said Guyana will be venturing into new areas with a total grant of US$8.7M and, today, the country has satisfied all its conditions precedent for first disbursement and the implementation of sub-projects which will begin in the first quarter of 2010.

“We are aiming to commit at least 80 per cent of the overall grant by June 2010. We will implement sub-projects in the following sectors, water, education, health, access, production related infrastructure, vulnerable groups, day care centres, and skills training,” he announced.

He said thanks to Operations Officer, Social Sector Division, CDB and the Country Officer, Mr. George Yearwood, for his usual support and Minister Singh for the tremendous guidance in making sure that the projects are implemented in as timely manner and achieve the necessary aimed target.

Attention
“To the participants of this workshop, let’s pay keen attention to what would has been discussed and presented to us and let us assimilate and put it into practice so that the BNTF programme can continue to be a shining light in the CDB to meet the poor of the poorest and, in some ways, try to alleviate poverty,” he urged.

Portfolio Manager, Social Sector Division, CDB, Mrs. Denise Noel-DeBique in her remarks, took the opportunity to thank the Government of Guyana for agreeing to co-host the workshop.

She said, in 2000 at a United Nations (UN) summit in New York, agreement was reached on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which define some minimal global achievements that, collectively, countries could aim at for poverty reduction.

Noel-DeBique said the international financing community, including development banks, concurred on how these activities were going to be financed, and, in 2003, at a high level forum on aid effectiveness, consensus was reached on how development actors would cooperate to ensure the achievement.

She said BNTF, at that time, was entering its fifth phase and was challenged towards greater effectiveness and that started a transformative process in which it is still engaged.

Noel-DeBique said the Government of Canada, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), contributed Cdn$32M and provided resources from its Technical Cooperation Trust Fund.

She said this was also happening within an emerging and dynamic policy framework of the CDB, which focused on greater accountability and included result based management, gender equality, environmental sustainability and good governance.

Noel-DeBique said the BNTF V programme design, therefore, reflects these areas, introducing some procedural things, such as a poverty reduction action plan and targeting and effective targeting of resources; an operations manual documenting and rules and responsibilities for the various actors in the programme.

She said implementing change is sometimes successful and sometimes not, but new partnerships have been developed in areas of health, education and other sectors.

Noel-DeBique said, in some countries. there was greater strengthening of the relationship with non-governmental and community-based organisations, which is reflected by the degree of participation, from the identification of the projects up to the sustainability of the results.

Resistance
She said, too, that there were, sometimes, a little bit of resistance by stakeholders to address controversial issues and community participation.

But a rule map, of operational and design issues, was made to improve performance of the programme with a view to improving delivery and impact of the resources.

Noel-DeBique said the findings of the evaluation show that the BNTF continues to be relevant in all the countries and the programme was responsive to the multi-dimensional nature of poverty. It was also thought that it was good, because it was in line with the new generation of anti-poverty programmes that regard governance as a vital link between growth and poverty reduction.

However, she said the design was still a challenge in many countries and it was recommended that greater communication among the stakeholders and engaging communities were needed much more, as well as the way some of the assessments were done.

Noel-DeBique said these have been addressed in the BNTF VI programme but it became clear that, overall, there is a need to strengthen the culture of accountability for results by building capacity, engaging different stakeholders and emphasising positive relationships.

She said the new BNTF VI programme became an entry point for a few things, including a review of the poverty reduction action plan and operations manual.

According to her the workshop is intended to improve the participants’ skills to conceptualise and design development projects and become engaged in the monitoring process.

She said it will emphasise how important it is to design the projects and respond to the countries and communities priority, obtain results and clarify roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in conducting, monitoring and reporting.