IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT
Under a special agreement with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been
serving Turkey's development for about 50 years now. In its 50 years
of presence in Turkey, the UNDP has assumed a very important role
in the implementation of projects funded by the World Bank, the
OPEC, the IFAD and other international finance institutions. Implementation
Support, which, aim effective and timely delivery of the projects,
is one of the key portfolio for UNDP-Turkey. The main services that
UNDP provides for the Implementation Support;
Institutional Building and Capacity Development
Through the implementation support, UNDP intends to strengthen the
implementation of the development project (DP) and technical capacity
of relevant institutions, and endowing these institutions with sustainable
human development principles and methodologies. UNDP provide support
to ministries in areas that will be essential to national ownership
and sustainability, notably support services in the financial management,
areas of recruitment, as well as training on policies and procedures
as and when necessary to support effective project execution. Through
a "learning by doing" approach, UNDP as a development
organization will seek to build and support the ministry's long-term
capacity for programme management. UNDP's intention is in line with
the framework for its forward-looking planning based on external
evaluations, which notes that "UNDP must strengthen what are
currently weak, decentralized capacities at the regional, local
and community level, and it has to close the gaps between the more
and less advanced regions in the country in the face of major regional
disparities." UNDP will provide its support to ministries through
a project framework ultimately geared towards ensuring national
ownership; and, under UNDP national execution arrangements, the
Government is fully responsible for the realization of the objectives
of projects, and for their sustainability.
Support Services
More specifically, UNDP/Turkey will be responsible
for providing specific support services to Ministries for the facilitation
of the project activities, support to effective and timely delivery,
and institutional capacity building. These support services include:
Recruitment through transparent and competitive
standards
UNDP in Turkey, as well as globally, has accumulated
vast experience in recruiting Project Staff based on the principles
of transparency, gender sensitivity, and competitiveness. Indeed,
these principles are a component of UNDP's legal framework on recruitment.
UNDP-Turkey will bring this experience to bear in the recruitment
process for qualified national and international experts best suited
for the management, implementation, and monitoring/evaluation of
the projects. Selecting high caliber project staffs are highly strategic
since they are geared to facilitate efficient, effective, and transparent
project management and coordination through monitoring and evaluation,
recruitment, and coordination with relevant partners.
Cost-effective international training and technical
assistance
As part of a global organization, UNDP-Turkey has
access to an international network of professional, tested, internationally-reputed
trainers with experience in providing training to staff and government
counterparts for similar projects, based on the ultimate objective
of capacity building and institutional strengthening. UNDP-Turkey
helps to the ministries to access these trainers to provide quality
training to the project's beneficiaries, as well as support to studies
and research. This training will be provided in a cost-effective
manner as foreseen in the "Technical Assistance and Staff Training"
and other relevant sections of the Projects Appraisal Reports.
Cost saving on project staff
Through its 50 years experience in Turkey, UNDP has
built significant professional staff capacity and experience on
project implementation and administrative/operational services.
Through the implementation support, this capacity and experience
tap and utilize, thereby reducing the number of project implementation
positions foreseen in the projects. Through this reduction in staff
positions and the use of its internal capacity, UNDP generates a
notable cost-savings to the overall loan portfolios.
Procurement according to Guidelines
UNDP monitors that industry-standard procurement
principles (competitiveness, best value for money, transparency,
fairness, efficiency and economy) and compliance with the provisions
of the Loans are complied with and respected. The UNDP, which has
been directly implementing the projects of international finance
organisations such as the World Bank, the OPEC, the IFAD, the EC
and many others or providing support to Ministries in the implementation
of such projects for nearly 50 years now, is specialised in the
"Procurement Rules and Procedures" that these organisations
require in the implementation of externally funded projects. Great
difficulties arise from mistakes to be made in these rules and implementation
standards, which are rather complicated and with which our ministries
have only recently become familiar. The UNDP, which is an international
organisation, provides support in these areas, which are one of
the most critical points in externally funded projects, and assumes
all responsibility in accordance with the agreement. In this way,
the year-end closures and auditing process through both Treasury
and external auditing companies could be finalized without having
any complications.
Full package of financial management and reporting,
and bypassing the bureaucratic difficulties that raises from domestic
legislation
The UNDP, which has been directly implementing the
projects of international finance organisations is also specialised
in the "Financial Management and Reporting Rules and Procedures"
that these organisations require in the implementation of externally
funded projects. The implementation support for the financial management
covers all kind of financial activities such as preparation of annual
work plans and budget in the appropriate format, preparation and
issuance of loan withdrawal application, annual review of progress
against work plan and cash flow control according to the AWAB, agreement
on necessary budget revisions, preparation of annual financial statements
for presentation to auditors, control of the financial productivity
for timely delivery.
The implementation support services also covers
overcoming of the difficulties that rises due to the discord in
the domestic legislation, and bureaucracy. The domestic legislation
applicable to the use of loans for externally funded projects in
Turkey puts the implementing organisations in difficulty. In particular:
- During the first 3 months of the year, the Ministry
of Finance does not release appropriations. As a result, the activities
and expenditures planned for the first 3 months of the year are
stopped and project activities slowed down. In particular, no
payment can be made during this period to the project consultants
to be retained. In particular, if the project is above agriculture,
then the spring sowing and planting season is missed as no inputs
can be obtained due to the lack of appropriations in the first
3 months, and as a result certain agricultural activities can
only be performed with a delay of one year.
- The use of the appropriations set aside for a
project during the year takes a long time due to the red tape
at the Ministry of Finance and the accounting office, and this
slows down the project activities and expenditures planned for
the entire duration of the project.
- Again due to domestic legislation, great difficulties
are encountered in the recruitment of short-term technical consultants
and project staff and in the payment of money to them, and such
project activities can hardly be carried out in time.
- All these difficulties result either in a failure
to make sufficient use of these resources which are obtained as
an external loan and on which interest is paid or in the project
deadline being extended. In either case, there is a waste of resources
in question.
The UNDP also provides ministries with strategic
support in the reporting standards required to be implemented under
those rules and procedures and in the reports that are generated,
and assume all responsibility in accordance with the agreement.
Preparation of the yearly progress reports, semi annual reports,
cash flow reports, productivity on financial management measures
and reports, cash flow management are some of the reports that prepare
by UNDP under the implementation support services.
|
PROJECT
DOCUMENTS
- Implementation Support
Project for Ministry of Agriculature and Rural Affairs -Sivas
Erzincan Development Project (SEDP)
|
Contact information
Bartu Soral
Programme Manager
bartu.soral@undp.org
Tel: (312) 454 1166
|