Nay Pyi Taw Accord for Effective Development Cooperation

By Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar • January 20, 2013

The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar has embarked on a far reaching reform programme to transform Myanmar into a modern, developed and democratic nation that improves the livelihood of its people.

The Government has high aspirations for people centered development while staying focused on achievable results. If shall start modestly, but move decisively with international assistance to enlarge capacity and skill development to reduce incidence of poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is enhancing relations with the international community to access knowledge, experience and resources to accelerate its development progress. If recognises its responsibility to its citizens and to its partners to achieve the most it can from this co-operation.

The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and its development partners agree to take concrete actions to make their cooperation more effective. The Nay Pyi Taw Accord for Effective Development Cooperation is a set of localised commitments that take in its foundation Myanmar’s unique history, values, governance systems, and socio-economic circum-stances to create a country-specific set of clear, measurable and monitorable actions.

These commitments build on previous discussions between the Government and partners and also reflect the conclusions of the international dialogue on aid effectiveness, including the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action.

In particular, the Accord has been informed by deliberations at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and takes forward the principles of ownership, focus on results, inclusive development partnerships, and transparency and accountability, embodied in the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.

The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar intends that the agreement be embraced and observed by all development partners.

The Nay Pyi Taw Accord for Effective Development Cooperation has been developed in collaboration between the Government and development partners in a spirits of mutual benefits and accountability. The range of country-level development effectiveness agreements negotiated across the Asian region and globally has informed local efforts.

The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar intends to move progressively in the coming years towards similar arrangements to promote broader development effectiveness, starting with this agreement on effective development cooperation.

The Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar commits to:

• Continue to deepen consultation on development priorities and plans

– Develop systems for dialogue and knowledge sharing across all levels of government: national, state, regional and local levels

– Engage strangly with civil society in participatory approaches, including providing greater voice to women, minorities and marginalised people

– Seek and consider the views of development partners

• Focus on achieving national priorities

– Develop a culture of democratic practices that recognises human rights and empowers citizens through participatory processes

– Strengthen the rule of law and improve access to justice and to information

– Create an enabling environment for civil society to contribute to policy formulation, budgetary processes and delivery of services at the grass roots level

– Pursue market based, inclusive growth, equitable and sustainable development with a pro poor focus to accelerate achievement of the MDGs, including by securing property rights.

– Accelerate peace – building , political reforms and development initiatives to promote reconciliation and national harmony in recent conflict and cease fire areas

• Enable effective decision making

– Build and use an evidence base for decision making, including by increasing the quality of statistics and statistical systems

– Integrate capacity enhancing objectives into all development plans and develop appropriate strategies to unleash and develop capacities

– Publish costed and prioritised national, sub-national and sector development plans with specific results frameworks, and reflect national priorities in budget allocations and public policy decisions

• Further develop coherent and efficient aid management systems

– Publish, review and streamline regulations for approval and implementation of development cooperation

– Develop an aid information management system to help inform planning and budgeting and create one framework to monitor government and development partner aid effectiveness performance

– Create systems for regular, nationally-led dialogue with development partners at the national, sub-national and sectoral/ thematic levels

• Strengthen public administration to enhance the transparency and effectiveness of government programs and foreign assistance

– Support the legislative and oversight functions of the Hluttaws and new forms of public participation in policy making

– Clarify and simplify lines of authority and devolve decision making processes while strengthening cross government linkages and the whole- of- government Coordination

– Strengthen government institutions to deliver core functions effectively, and establish benchmarks and feedback systems on government performance to improve efficiency and effectiveness

– Increase the transparency of budget operations, including through the timely and reliable publication of budget information, including electronic publications – Strengthen fiduciary management and safeguard local resources and development cooperation from misuse through improvement of public procurement and implementation of the anticorruption law

– Encourage domestic resource mobilization and increase reliance on national resources

– Strengthen social and environmental safeguards and compliance with their implementation

Development partners commit to:

• Take the unique local context in Myanmar as the starting point:

– Collaborate with each other and local and international institutions on diagnostic studies and sectoral reviews

– Build and make greater use of national capacity to collect, interpret, share and use development data, consistently disaggregated by gender

– Support South-South cooperation and sharing experience from regional successes, especially within ASEAN

• Align development assistance with national priorities

– Align development assistance with national, sub-national and local priorities based on Myanmar ownership, as set out in the Framework for Economic and Social Reforms, the National Comprehensive Development Plan and other official planning documents

– Undertake sustained and efficient dialogue with relevant national counterparts on strategies and programmes

– Consult with civil society organizations, local communities and beneficiaries, especially women, minorities and etc

• Participate in and be guided by country-led coordination processes

– Take strategic direction from the conclusions of high level dialogue with the government

– Establish complementary dialogue with and other partners, including the private sector

– Actively support manageable, Ministry led, sectoral and thematic coordination mechanisms, organized around Myanmar government structures, avoiding the creation of an excessive number of working groups

• Use conflict-sensitive and inclusive approaches to support peace and state building

– Build deep knowledge of conflict situations and consult widely on strategies and programs

– Move quickly but thoughtfully through established structures to provide transparent and equitable assistance in cease fire and conflict affected areas

– Strengthen the Government’s capacity to perform and be accountable for its core functions in conflict affected areas, and across the nation in managing risk from external shocks and natural disasters

– Strengthen the role of oversight institutions and organizations, including Hluttaws, statutory authorities and participatory processes to empower citizens to engage in policy making and review

• Focus on maximizing development results for the people of Myanmar

– Support national and subnational strategies and programs that are pro-poor and inclusive to accelerate achievement of the MDGs

– Engage with the private sector to understand better and respond to impediments to private sector development and to improve the development impacts of private investment

– Work to build and implement one nationally led development results reporting system that includes and encourages joint monitoring and evaduation and that integrates targets for gender equality and women’s empowerment

– Ensure adequate social and environmental impact assessments are undertaken and ensure compliance with the results in designing and delivering development activities

• Work with government o strengthen institutions, build capacity, reduce transaction costs and increase aid effectiveness

-Be fully transparent in developing, designing and delivering assistance, wher ever possible through untied aid

– Provide timely and accurate programming and financial information to the Government and other partners

– Provide maximum predictability in future aid allocation for Myanmar, publishing 3-5 year indicative budgets wherever possible

– Ensure that technical cooperation is well coordinated and focused on strengthening national policies, institutions, and systems and in building local capacity, not substituting for it

– Work through country led programming approaches and wher ever possible avoid a proliferation of stand-alone activities and separate project implementation units

– Move as quickly as possible to work within Myanmar implementation systems and structures on the basis of sound, jointly-undertaken analysis, identifying and rectifying problems in the process

– Find common ground and, wherever possible, speak and act as one, and to that end, simplify consultation channels with Myanmar

Performance Assessment

A joint Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar-Development Partner working group will be formed to prepare a performance the Republic of the Union of Myanmar framework or action plan to guide implementation of this aggrement. This framework will include a manageable number of key indicators of the standards and benchmarks that will be used to assess the extent to which its commitments are being kept. They will be reasonable, achievable and monitorable.

The Nay Pyi Taw Accord for Effective Development Cooperation was presented to development partners by the Minister of National Planning and Economic Development and approved by acclamation at the First Myanmar Development Cooperation Forum, Nay Pyi Taw, 20th of January 2013.

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