INGO Forum Meetings 2007

 

INGO Forum Meeting - Friday, February 28, 2008

“The Changing Development Context, Donors Presence, Aid Effectiveness
and INGOs”

Friday, February 28 from 15.00 – 17.00 hours,
218 Doi Can, La Thanh Hotel, Building. F1, Hanoi

Background:
Since Doi Moi, when Vietnam first began to introduce market reforms, the country has had a very impressive economic growth record, and the overall achievements in tackling poverty issues have been remarkable. The poverty rate has been dramatically reduced from 53 per cent in 1993 to below 19.6 per cent in 2006.

Continued high economic growth remains a top priority for the Government of Vietnam (GOV), the aim is to accelerate the annual GDP to between 8.5 to 9% in 2008 (Prime Ministers speech at Consultative Group Meeting in December 2007), and for Vietnam to become a middle-income country (MIC) by 2010, and industrialised country in 2020.

However, pockets of poverty throughout the country still present significant challenges, with higher rates occurring in the north-west and central highland region, where high concentrations of ethnic minority groups live. But also other and new groups of poor and vulnerable groups are faced with challenges including children, women, people with disabilities (PWD), people living with HIV and/or AIDS (PLWA), migrants, disaster-prone communities, and communities impacted by environmental pollution and degradation etc. Meanwhile, governance issues and environmental challenges are becoming increasingly critical in ensuring sustainable development.

It is likely that Vietnam will achieve it's goal of becoming a MIC by 2010, two years from now. This will lead to changes in the presence of donors and the ODA support to Vietnam. Sweden, is the first donor to have announced that it will enter into a phase out  program from 2009 and beyond.

Meanwhile, donors and the GOV have been upscaling the aid effectiveness agenda in Vietnam during the past years through the Partnership Group on Aid Effectiveness (PGAE). These efforts resulted in the Hanoi Core Statement (HCS), a localised statement of the Paris Declaration,e ndorsed in 2005 by GOV and the donor community. The HCS was developed by the PGAE, and was endorsed at the Mid-term CG Meeting in 2005, and approved by the GOV in September 2005. The HCS comprises 28 Partnership Commitments, 14 indicators and 5 guiding principles, the HCS calls for changes in the behaviour of both donors and government towards aid effectiveness agenda.

The changes in the development context, donors presence, and the increasing GOV and donor aid effectiveness efforts raises a number of issues for INGOs, how will the focus and role of INGOs change, how will the funding for INGOs changes, and what how does aid effectiveness relate to INGOs.

Up to 2007, the INGO support to poverty reduction and development has continued to grow. In 2007, there were up to between 500-600 INGOs, implementing a variety of development programmes in all sectors and provinces of the country, with a total contribution of US$220 million (PACCOM figures). The total budget is expected to raise up further to US$250 in 2008.

Some INGOs have started to revise their strategies for Vietnam taking the changing context into consideration. Some INGOs and Vietnamese NGOs have started to pay increasing attention to the issue of aid effectiveness in general. This resulted in the establishment of the Aid Monitoring Group (AMG) in 20071.

However, the question of how aid effectiveness relates to INGOs is still to be discussed more broadly in the INGO community.

This INGO forum aims to address some of the issues and questions relating to “The Changing Development Context, Donors Presence, Aid Effectiveness and INGOs”

The meeting agenda:

1) NGO RC UPDATE - by the Co-Director(s)
UN-EU Cost Norms
PIT
INGO representatives to the Steering Committee

2) BEYOND 2010 – Perspectives on the Changing Development Context, Donor Presence, and relation between the World Bank and INGOs by Martin Rama, Lead Economist, World Bank Vietnam.
Followed by discussion on perspectives for changing donor presence and INGOs.

3) AID EFFECTIVENESS, Government, DONORs and INGOs – Introduction to the Partnership Group for Aid Effectiveness (PGAE), Government and Donor aid effectiveness efforts and preparations for the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness. (HLF 3), to be held in Accra, Ghana in September 2008 by Cao Manh Cuong (MPI), Coordinator for the PGAE.
Followed by discussion on perspectives for Aid Effectiveness and INGOs

4) AOB

INGO Forum Meeting - Friday, September 28

 

1. WELCOME – by the Managing Co-Director
2. DEVELOPMENT REPORTS & AID MONITORING

  • Briefing on the Aid Monitoring Group (AMG) initiative and the 'Consultation meeting on World Bank (WB) conditionality' organised by the AMG on September 12
  • Brief presentation of the 'Evaluation of NGO involvement in the Vietnam Development Report (VDR 2007) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Credits (PRSC 2006-10)'
  • NGO involvement in the Vietnam Development Report 2008 lead by the World Bank
  • NGO involvement in the Poverty Assessment 2008 carried out by VASS

3. NEW INGO REPRESENTATIVES for the STEERING COMMITTEE & to the CG MEETING

  • Formal confirmation of the new INGO representative candidates and self-introduction by them on their background and focus in the NGO RC Steering Committee and to the Consultative Group Meeting respectively.

4. AOB


INGO Forum Meeting - Friday, May 25

  1. WELCOME – by Managing Co-Director Trine Glue Doan
  2. ONE UN REFORM INITIATIVE – Introduction and progress update on One UN Reform Initiative, and perspectives for INGO relations with the UN, by UN Resident Coordinator Mr. John Hendra, followed by discussion.
  3. MID-TERM CONSULTATIVE GROUP MEETING – discussion of INGO statements on this CG meeting's agenda including: Monitoring and Evaluation framework for the SEDP, Results of anti-corruption efforts, WTO, Off-track MDGs and emerging development challenges: water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS and Road Safety, and Aid Effectiveness/Harmonization.
  4. CALL FOR INGO NOMINATIONS – call for INGO 2 nominations for the NGO Resource Centre Steering Committee
  5. AOB

Presentations

INGO Forum Meeting - Friday, March 2

  1. NGO RC UPDATE: a. Briefing on the NGO RC plan for 2007 by Trine Glue Doan, including comments on options for funding b. INGO participation in the PRSC
  2. AVIAN INFLUENZA UPDATE: UNDP's Avian Influenza Donor Coordination Specialist David Payne will provide an update on the AI Partnership Agreement, the AI Green Book and recent outbreaks.
  3. GCAP VIETNAM: The Fatherland Front and the GCAP team will provide a brief on GCAP Vietnam 2006 and discuss plans for GCAP 2007, followed by a discussion of INGO involvement in GCAP 2007.

Background documents