PRBS Coordination Group Meeting

PRBS Coordination Group Meeting

15th August 2006 at the PRBS Secretariat Office

Minutes

Attending

Martin SaladinSwiss Cooperation (Chair)

John PiperDfID

Kevin QuinlanDfID

Allister MoonWB

Wilberforce MarikiAfDB

Reid SirrsCIDA

Stephen PotterCIDA

Chelaus RutachururwaIMF

Douglas CarpenterEuropean Commission

Nicolai RugeEmbassy of Denmark(

Jacob dal WinterEmbassy of Denmark

James BiancoEmbassy of Ireland

Martha KabiruEmbassy of Ireland

Machiko TsuburaEmbassy of Japan

Pieter DorstEmbassy of Netherlands

Erik JonssonEmbassy of Sweden

Britta OltmannGerman DC/KfW

Yuko SuzukiDPG Secretariat (observer)

Theresa Smout UNDP (observer)

Sarah FurrerSwiss Cooperation (Minutes)

Agenda

1. Adoption of Agenda and Minutes of the Previous Meeting

2. Preparation of the Annual Review 2006

- Information and discussion on preparations with MoF GBS Secretariat (for details see attached briefing note on status of preparations)

3. Matters arising from the PER Working Group Meeting of August 7, 2006

- Up-date and discussions (representation, relation PER process/GBS process)

4. Updates:

a. MoF meeting (for issues not covered under 2.)

b. Satisfactory Sector Review Task Force

c. Underlying Processes

e. MKUKUTA Annual Progress Report

f. Strategic Partnership with Africa (SPA) Budget Support Survey

4. Learning Assessment during the Annual Review 2006

5. AoB

SUMMARY

ANNEX

1. Adoption of Agenda and Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Germany introduced an item on the presentation of a planned German financed comparative study on the "Political Economy of donor-supported PFM reform programmes". Sweden introduced an agenda item under AoB requesting an up-date on the status of GBS disbursements for the first quarter of the Tanzanian Financial Year 2006/07. The Chair indicated an up-date on the recruitment of the senior economist for the PRBS Secretariat under AoB.

With regards to matters arising from the previous minutes, information was sought on recent developments on the Lead for "infrastructure" under item 2 - Division of Liaison (Cluster 1). Reference was made to a proposal circulated by the EC suggesting to merge "roads" and "infrastructure" into "transport". In this case, the EC would take the overall lead for "transport".It was further suggested to introduce a summary box with main deadlinesat the end of the minutes for easy reference and to monitor progress.

The proposed agenda was adopted and the minutes of the last meeting were endorsed as an accurate record.

2. Preparation of the Annual Review 2006

- Information and discussion on preparations with MoF GBS Secretariat (for details see attached briefing note on status of preparations)

The Chair guided the group through the briefing note on preparations for the Annual Review 2006 (AR06) circulated earlier for use during the meeting (please find the note attached to these minutes). Since the meeting with Ministry of Finance (MoF) scheduled for Monday 14 August didnot take place, there was no new information to be added to the note. The meeting was also informed that the second draft ToR for the AR06 has not yet been shared with the PRBS Secretariat and is still with the Deputy PS, Mr. Kijjah. After the constructive discussions with the MoF GBS Secretariat under the leadership of Mr. Kamugisha on 3 August, it is expected that the draft ToRs will be of improved quality and will be shared with the group once available. The Chair further introduced a tentative time plan for the period running up to the AR06 which incorporates on-going discussions between MoF GBS Secretariat and the PRBS Secretariat (please find the tentative time plan attached to the minutes).

Additional information was provided on the item of media and the AR06. During the last meeting the MoF GBS Secretariat had welcomed a more active involvement of the media and the Chair subsequently took up discussions with Daniel Dickinson, the BBS Correspondent in Dar Es Salaam. Daniel Dickinson prepared a first draft media strategy for the Annual Review 2006 with following main elements amongst which MoF and DPs could choose:

• Produce a media fact pack for journalists (and decision makers)

[schedule for release in second half of September].

• Hold a lunch briefing with senior media editors a week before the review begins

[proposed date: October 3 or 4].

• Follow up with senior media editors with up to two breakfast meetings for journalists during the event itself

[Proposed date: October 16 or 17]

• Provide the opportunity for selected journalists to have a one-to-one interview with the Minister of Finance and/or PST and/or PRBS Chair

[schedule in week before review begins].

• Produce a press release in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, the Facilitator of the AR06 and donors at the end of the two week review.

• Stimulate the PRBS debate with interactive radio and TV programmes

[schedule during 2 week review].

As a follow-up to the last Coordination Group meeting recommendations on civil society involvement, the Chair informed the group on discussions which had followed in the HoC meeting of 27 July 2006. The main recommendation had been for the PRBS Secretariat to take steps to make the PAF accessible and available to civil society in order for the group to possibly solicit views on progress against the PAF from civil society as a next step. The MoF GBS Secretariat agreed to make the PAF publicly accessible on the government website. MoF also proposed to invite CSOs as observers, most likely those linked to the PER process, to the Plenary and Wrap-up sessions of the AR06.

In the discussions, following points were raised:

Media: It was advised that communication materials for the media should be in Kiswahili and that the media spokesman should also be conversant in Kiswahili.

Facilitator: The former PRBS Chair, Sweden, advised the group on the timing for the mission of the facilitator, suggesting that he should be with the group already a week before the beginning of the review. Questions were raised whether the facilitator, Dag Aarnes had already been contacted for the AR06. The Chair informed the group that the facilitator was well aware of the assignment, but was waiting for a formal invitation from MoF. The meeting was also informed that the preference for Dag Aarnes as the facilitator had already been established before the handover of the Chairmanship to Switzerland. Discussions are now ongoing with MoF for the ToRs to be tightened, particularly with regards to clarity on roles and responsibilities of the facilitator. The Joint GBS Secretariats will assist with the facilitation of the various AR06 meetings and there will be no additional external assistant to the facilitator.

Thematic Working Groups (TWGs):

The PRBS Secretariat circulated a draft one pager on roles of the Thematic Working Group Leads (no inputs received from the Coordination Group so far). This draft note was shared with MoF GBS Secretariat in order to communicate expectations on preparations. During the last meeting with MoF, a meeting of all TWG Leads both on Government and DP side (to be called by MoF) was suggested and MoF welcomed the idea, however, no date was set. In order to move preparations forward, the Chair recommended the decentralized approach following the example from the TWG 3 – Governance parallel to a formal launching through meetings.

The TWG Lead Cluster 3 – Governance informed the meeting that he, the other Co-Chair of the GWG and the DP TWG Leadmet with the government counterpart, Mr. Kabunduguru, to touch base on preparations for the AR06. Questions arose with regards to the flow of information from the MoF GBS Secretariat to the GoT TWG Leads as Mr. Kabunduguru was not fully aware of the up-coming AR06 and preparations ongoing. The Leads for TWG 3 are meeting again on August 23. The DP Lead for TWG 4 – Budget, informed the meeting that AR06 was briefly touched upon at the last PER Working group meeting and that issues to be discussed in this TWG for the AR06 are being taken forward by the group.

Names of Government TWG participants: During discussions it was put forward that there are differences between different TWGs in terms of scope. It would therefore be crucial, particularly in large groups such as for TWG 1 – MKUKUTA Cluster 1, to have a list of names for the sub-areas on the government side.

Meeting of TWG Leads/informal preparations:In terms of preparedness on the government side, the formal meeting between all GoT and DP TWG Leads to ensure expectations and roles both in the run-up as during the AR06 was considered by the group as very important. Outputs from such a meeting would be that everyone "reads from the same page" and based on input from the draft guidance note on TWG Leads, a joint set of roles and responsibilities could be identified and endorsed. However, since this meeting should be calledby government, DP TWG Leads were also advised to follow the decentralized approach of directly meeting bilaterally with government counterparts for preparations until the end of the month. The draft guidance note for TWG Leads will be polished up including an introductory paragraph in order to be shared during these bilateral meetings, and DPs are welcomed to further input until Friday, 18 August, after which the note will be finalized.

It was also requested that government be asked to write a letter to all line ministries informing them about the review and preparations and the Chair suggested to take this up in the next Troika meeting with the PS. Also, it was agreed that regularly up-dated information on TWG membership will be made available by the PRBS Secretariat on the DPG website.

→The PRBS Secretariat will post and up-date TWG membership on the DPG website and request names for government counterparts in the TWGs from MoF.

→The group agreed thatpreparations in the TWGs will follow a double approach: (1) the DP TWG Leads will follow a decentralized approach of liaising with their government counterparts until end of August 2006 (2) The PRBS Chair and Secretariat will actively encourage government to organize the proposed AR06 Preparation meeting of all TWG Leads.

→The PRBS Secretariat will finalize the guidance note on roles of TWG Leads including an introductory paragraph on the AR06 for the uninformed reader. Agencies are welcome to input until Friday, 18 August.

→The group recommended that during the next Troika meeting with the PS, DPs will recommend MoF to send out a letter to line ministries with information on the AR06 and preparations on-going.

GoT Progress Report against the PAF: MoF GBS Secretariat is aware of the recommendation from DPs. However, given the insufficient flow of information from MoF to TWG Chairs further follow-up is needed to ensure steps are initiated in order for TWG leads to prepare summaries of progress in their area. This will again be taken forward in a decentralized manner both by the PRBS Secretariat and the DP TWG Leads.

"Budget Speech Issues":Following a presentation on budget speech analysis by Britta Oltmann at the PRBS Open of June 28, the HoC of July 3 recommended that a digest note will be prepared for HoCs by the PRBS Secretariat together with KfW, IMF and WB for further use in dialogue with GoT. This compilation is ready now but inputs would still be welcome in the area of agriculture and quality of spending/value for money. Following are the issues raised in the paper:

-Wage Bill

-Energy

-Infrastructure

-Fiscal decentralization

-Agriculture

-Tax, Revenues (including concessions) and Debt Sustainability

-Quality of Spending / Value for Money

-Governance

Douglas Carpenter agreed to make an input for agriculture. The draft note will be circulated to the group. Discussions arose around whether this was creating parallel processes with regards to the Budget- group's work, but it was clarified that the request from the HoC was specifically based on presentations and inputs made around analysis of the budget speech in the PRBS Open.

→Input on agriculture for the "Budget Speech Issues" will be made by EC

→The Secretariat will share the consolidated version of the "Budget Speech Issues" with the group.

3. Matters arising from the PER Working Group Meeting of August 7, 2006

- Up-date and discussions (representation, relation PER process/GBS process)

James Bianco provided the group with a feedback on the PER working group meeting of August 7, 2006:

-The Ministry of Finance submitted a draft timetable to the PER WG, however, this timetable did not highlight topics to be reviewed throughout the PER process for FY 06/07. It was therefore decided that a joint Government/DP task force would be set up to put forward a draft work plan for the rest of the year – this would be submitted at the following meeting to be held on 18 August.

-The PEFAR report is still not finalized. A first draft of the PER/MKUKUTA Annual Consultative Meeting Report was made available by MoF this week and will be discussed at the next PER WG meeting on August 18. Comments by DPs should be ready by August 16, 2006.

-During the PER WG meeting it became apparent that the Cluster Working Groups are still not functioning. This is becoming increasingly serious and frustrating.

-For preparations of the AR06, the PER WG meeting agreed that the DPs would submit a list of topics to be discussed during the review for the next PER WG meeting.

After discussions in the group, the proposal came forward for the Troika+ to raise the non-functioning of the Cluster Working Groups with the PS MoF. At the same time, the PER group would also work on the issue as a group. However, there was also an apprehension that the PER Cluster approach may not work at all, even in the future.

For the question of submission of issues for the AR06 in the PER WG group, different processes were proposed but the group agreed that DfID would circulate a proposal for comments by e-mail. It was agreed that the list of issues should be kept short.Preliminary issues could be the wage bill or local government financing issues.

It was further clarified that a number of different issues are referred to at different levels: (1) Issues at the HoC level to inform policy dialogue at the AR06 – a first rough list was captured in the HoC meeting of July 3 2006. This list will be further refined and informed by issues arising at more technical levels and internal agency consultations; (2) Issues to be discussed during the AR06 at the TWG level, such as the issues referred to at the PER WG meeting – in the case of the PER WG, these issues are also to inform the work plan throughout the year and could come up at a future annual review. Some of these issues may also become HoC level issues. (3) During the PER WG meeting reference was also made to issues around re-vitalizing the PER WG.

A proposal was made that the identification and taking forward of issues for discussion in TWGs during the AR06 could be an agenda item in the proposed joint TWG Lead meeting (see under agenda item 2).

DPs present at the PER/MKUKUTA Annual Consultative Meeting in May were encouraged to comment on the draft report, however, the group decided there was no need for a unified DP response to the report.

→DfID to circulate a list of PER WG issues for the AR06 to the budget economist groupfor comment and finalize by Friday.

→The group recommends to carry the identification of issues for the annual review into the potential meeting of TWG Leads.

→The group recommends to the Troika+ to highlight the serious non-functioning of the PER cluster approach to the PS MoF

4. Updates:

a. MoF meeting (for issues not covered under 2.)

The Chair reminded the group to share bilateral GBS agreements with the PRBS Secretariat. The PRBS Secretariat was asked to send a formal e-mail with the request. It was further suggested that some analysis be undertaken on the bilateral agreements once available to highlight different conditions and terms.

→The PRBS Secretariat will send an e-mail formally requesting agencies to submit bilateral agreements.

b. Satisfactory Sector Review Task Force

On the government side, difficulties were encountered and the Chair may shift from the Commissioner PAD, Mr. Kamugisha to Mr. Kijjah, the Deputy PS MoF, in order to get better representation on the group. No meetings have taken place since the first meeting but the TF is expecting to meet next week to review.

It was pointed out that there needs to be a clear understanding on the government side that guidance on the definition of satisfactory sector reviews needs to be in place and operational before the AR06.

c. Underlying Processes

Due to absence of the PRBS Secretariat, no up-date was given. However it was noted by the Chair that there may be a number of underlying processes were an up-date would be welcome such as the BEST review. It was suggested that the PRBS Secretariat circulates an e-mail to DP TWG Leads highlighting areas were the PRBS Secretariat would need information.