CSOs Seek to Understand and Provide Inputs for National Program for Sub-national Democratic Development
A consultative meeting between civil society organizations and Ministry of Interior (MoI) on draft of 10-Year National Program for Sub-National Democratic Development (NP-SNDD) was held on September 2, 2009 in Phnom Penh. The meeting was hosted by Commune Council Support Project (CCSP) and facilitated by NGO Liaison Office (NLO). Altogether 50 participants representing CSOs, development partners and officials from MoI attended the meeting.
The meeting was opened by a welcome remark by HE Leng Vy of the General Department of Local Administration. Speaking on the process of drafting the Ten Year Plan, HE Leng Vy commented on the challenges of creating a law in English, translating it into Khmer, making changes, and re-translating it into English. This is the fourth version A of the proposed program. In continuing the implementation Decentralization and Deconcentration reforms, the participation from relevant stakeholders, especially CSOs, is still required.
The inputs from CSOs on the national program are vital in order that the policies can be applied, said HE Leng Vy. It is committed that the national program be officially submitted for approval by the Government by late 2009.
The NP-SNDD is the RGC’s 10-year strategy and implementation program through which the RGC will achieve substantial progress toward its strategic vision of decentralization and deconcentration as elaborated in the Strategic Framework for D&D reforms and the Law on Administrative Mana-gement of Capital, Province, District, Municipality and Khan, and the Law on Administrative Management of Commune/Sangkat..
After HE Leng Vy spoke, speakers from civil society and NGO’s discussed the importance of the changes and reforms taking place.
Later, the members of the consultative meeting broke up into five smaller groups to discuss specific aspects of Chapter 3 of the national program: Sub-national Administration Development; Human Resource Management and Development Systems; Transfer of Functions; Sub-national Budget, Financial and Property Management Systems; and Support Institutions for D&D Reforms.
Results from the discussions will be presented to the Secretariat of National Committee for Sub-national Democratic Development (NCDD) for considerations as inputs to the ten-year national program for it to be more comprehensive.
This is a vital contribution from CSOs and it reflects close cooperation between CSOs and the Government in the implementation of Decentralization and Deconcentration reforms which aim to ensure the success of sub-national democratic development.
The consultative meeting ended in the late afternoon, after closing comments by Ms. Prak Sokhany, executive director of CCSP.
(Source: D&D Bulletin, the publication of the Commune Council Support Project, Volum 8 No.7, July-September 2009)