NEDA acts to enhance evaluation of ODA projects

MANILA, Philippines - The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) will step up efforts to enhance its evaluation of Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects, the agency said over the weekend.

NEDA Deputy Director-General Rolando Tungpalan said the government review of the 2009 ODA portfolio would include a new feature called the Joint Analytical Workshop (JAW), which provides a platform for in-depth joint analysis among implementing and oversight agencies and foreign development partners.

As mandated by the ODA Act of 1996, the NEDA is tasked to annually assess ODA-funded projects and submit the ODA portfolio review to Congress not later than June 30 every year.

Tungpalan said the workshop conducted recently brought together, for the first time using a common analytical framework, representatives from the NEDA, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and World Bank (WB) in a discussion with implementing and other oversight agencies.

“It’s not new that each development partner has actively dissected issues and come up with recommendations in workshops like this. But I am glad that for the first time, we have brought together the ADB, JICA and WB to address the issues that affected the quality of our portfolios,” Tungpalan said.

The workshop specifically delved into three thematic issues that hampered the implementation of ODA projects.

These include start-up delays, funds flow bottlenecks, and issues related to the participation of local governments.

Data from the agency’s Project Monitoring Office showed that of the 102 active loans, at least 11 suffer from start-up delays.

Start-up delays usually happen when there are advance procurement constraints that affect the hiring of project staff and consultants and deficiencies in implementing land acquisition and resettlement plans.

The JAW workshop participants, for their part, said the perennial funds flow bottlenecks that hamper project implementation include slow processing by oversight agencies of fund release documents, as well as slow compliance by implementing agencies to financial documentation requirements.

As to issues on the participation of local government units (LGUs), there are issues on LGUs’ low demand for funds from ODA re-lending facilities, difficulties with the National Government-LGU cost sharing policy, and weak LGU project management capacity.

Around 70 participants attended the first JAW workshop, which resulted in policy and process recommendations that will be incorporated in the ODA portfolio review. NEDA also hopes that JAW recommendations will be mainstreamed into the policies of the National Government, implementing agencies, local governments and even foreign development partners.