|
Description / Overview:
During the Tenth Five-Year Plan (FYP) period, the country has entered into a new stage of realizing modernization through the transition to a social market-led economy. While the FYP will lay the foundation for making the country equipped with a sound and credible economy, it also focuses on raising substantially the country’s Human Development Index, generating more jobs, reducing poverty to the minimum, and paving the way for achieving the MDGs by the year 2015.
The development objectives of this project, entitled “Technical Support for the Implementation of the Tenth Five-Year Plan”, will assist the government in assuring an enabling environment in which to implement the policies and projects embodied in the Tenth FYP. The assistance seeks to enhance institutional and human capacities and bring about good governance in implementing the Tenth FYP.
Cross Cutting Themes:
This project promotes integrating gender equality in national development policies by including gender equality in the 11th FYP.
Objectives:
In light of the above prospects, and in support to the Syrian Government through SPC as the implementing partner, the project aims to achieve the following outputs:
- Operationalization of the national Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) System to track performance of the FYP;
- Developing technical capacities within the State Planning Commission and the Economic Team at the Deputy Prime Minster’s Office to implement the economic reform package emanating from the Tenth FYP;
- Producing MDG Reports in six pilot governorates, namely Aleppo, Idleb, Deir Ezzor, Sweida, Dara'a, and Quneitra, and linking them to their respective local development plans;
- Formulating local development plans in the six pilot governorates ;
- Developing a long-term socio-economic strategy until the year 2015 that will feed into the formulation of the Eleventh FYP (2011-2015); and
- Poverty assessment conducted and analytical capacities developed
Implementation Strategy:
a. Government Strategy
- Ultimately, the success of this project will be measured by the contribution it makes to providing an enabling environment for the implementation phase of the tenth FYP. Building a partnership between the GoS/SPC and UNDP to achieve this task will continue, and evaluate, the performance of their joint work during the formation phase of the tenth FYP. To better respond to the country's needs at this stage, and in order to assist in ensuring soft landing of the economy in its transition, UNDP technical assistance is needed to provide international expertise and best practices that could help Syrian policy makers to decide on how to verify options and choose country-specific alternatives in implementing the Tenth Five-Year Plan policies and projects.
- Moreover, the Government/SPC intends, through this joint project, to develop the capacity to closely monitor progress made in implementing assigned policies and projects for the result-based FYP, and to properly evaluate their outcomes and impacts. UNDP was already the leading agency that provided technical support in building a national M&E system. Assistance in operationalization of this M&E system will build up, complement and further institutionalize the efforts made by UNDP. Utilizing such a system will evaluate the results of project SYR/05/005 and tie it in with the implementation phase of the Tenth FYP. Previous Five Year Plans were not accompanied by such systems of follow up. Consequently, they suffered from the absence of a monitorable framework that could guide the implementation and show at each stage the progress achieved and the results performed. A proper, measurable implementation of the adopted M+E system will be able to provide SPC and ministries with the following answers: (1) Relevance: Did the assigned policy or project address priority issues/problems faced by the given sector/target areas and communities? Was the project consistent with policies of the sector as identified in the FYP? (2) Effectiveness: Were inputs (staff, time, money, equipment) used in the best possible way to achieve outputs? Could implementation been improved? Was there a better way of doing things? (3) Impact: What has been the contribution of the policy/ project to the broader level development goals? Did the project have any negative or unforeseen consequences? (4) Sustainability: Has the necessary follow-up system been put in place to ensure the policy/ project itself, and more particularly, the policy/ project benefits continues?
- As for addressing local development needs and potentials at the Governorates, towns, municipalities level, the preparatory process for the formation of local socio-economic development plans has already started through joint work with UNDP. But assistance in this project will go beyond preparatory facilitation and give substantive support for the establishment of such plans. Previous FYPs were extremely centralized and, therefore, failed to address issues relating to local resource mobilization and decentralized development plans. Stated differently, they did not, sufficiently, help to improve in the utilization of local assets and to enhance opportunities and services through achieving sustainable and equitable regional economic and social development, supported by pro-poor policies, employment-generating economic growth activities and skills development, and decent infrastructure. Recognizing these issues, the current Tenth FYP (2006-2010) addresses local and regional development plans and the creation of growth poles in two separate chapters, in addition to another chapter that tackle the priority issues of the least developed and targeted areas: i.e. the economic and social development of the North Eastern region.
Achievements / Current Status:
As of February 2009:
- Officer in Charge (OIC) Mr. Aref Tarabichi, recruited.
- Syrian Strategic Planning Framework for the 11th FYP produced.
- Syrian long term vision 2025 drafted.
- Support in the formulation of the 11th FYP provided.
- Support in the formulation of a prototype of a local plan for Idleb provided.
Partnerships:
Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI)
Project Document:
|
