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DP/2010/CRP.2-DP/FPA/2010/CRP.1

29 June 2010

English only

Annual session 201021 June - 2 July 2010, GenevaItem 13 of the provisional agendaField visits

Report of the field visit of the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA to the Syrian Arab Republic (17-22 May 2010)

ContentsPage

I. Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 2

II. Overview of the situation of cooperation with the Syrian Arab Republic.............................................. 2

III. Support to the implementation of the national development agenda...................................................... 4

IV. Ownership, coordination and coherence................................................................................................. 6

V. Impact of the cooperation between UNDP/UNFPA and the Syrian Arab Republic............................... 9

VI. Recommendations................................................................................................................................... 10

VII. Observations and conclusions................................................................................................................. 11

Annexes...................................................................................................................................................

I. List of participants in the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board field visit to the Syrian Arab Republic.......................................................................................................................................... 12

II. Meetings held and main points of meetings Annexes.................................................................... 14


I. Introduction

1. Consistent with its mandate of organizing periodic visits to programme countries with a view to obtaining a first-hand assessment and appreciation of the work of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Executive Board arranged a field visit to the Syrian Arab Republic for Board members, from 17 to 22 May 2010. The mission consisted of an 11-member team, accompanied by the Secretary of the UNDP Executive Board secretariat and the Chief, Executive Board and External Relations Branch of UNFPA. The list of the participants is contained in annex I to the present report. The Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar, H.E. Mr. Nasser Abdel Al-Nasser was elected Team Leader, while Mr. Sulay Manah Kpukumu of Sierra Leone was elected the Chief Rapporteur by group, assisted by Messrs Matthias Bachmann of Switzerland, Asif Garayev of Azerbaijan and Rodrigo Pintado of Mexico as rapporteurs for the mission respectively.

2. The objectives of the mission are in keeping with Executive Board decision 94/4 and subsequent guidelines that provide for observations to stimulate the discussions of the Executive Board with a view to enhancing contributions towards the increased effectiveness and efficiency of UNDP and UNFPA in discharging their mandates in programme countries.

3. In its bid to achieve these goals, the team had wide-ranging interactions with the staff of UNDP, UNFPA, other members of the United Nations country team; officials of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic; the business community, as well as representatives of the diplomatic community present on the ground and members of civil society. The team visited the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees/World Food Programme (UNHCR/WFP) refugee registration centre, as well as a number of projects in different parts of the country to get first-hand insights into the operation of UNDP and UNFPA and the impact of their work on development in the Syrian Arab Republic.

4. Officials and project participants expressed appreciation for the visit of the mission and the opportunity it offered for sharing their perspectives on the work of the respective organizations. The programme of work of the mission with respect to key meetings and project visits is contained in annex II to the present report. Upon the conclusion of the mission, debriefing sessions were held with the Resident Coordinator and colleagues of UNDP/UNFPA to discuss the main findings of the mission as described below.

5. The visit provided an opportunity to observe first-hand the role of UNDP and UNFPA in supporting the Government in its efforts in the implementation of the national socio-economic reform strategy for growth and the attainment of the Five-Year Development Plan, based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Executive Board would like to express sincere appreciation to the staff of UNDP and UNFPA for organizing a thoroughly stimulating, insightful and eventful field visit to the Syrian Arab Republic.

II. Overview of the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic

6. Syria is a middle-income programme country with a population of 23 million inhabitants and a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of $4,620. In 2006, the Government embarked upon an ambitious reform programme intended to transform the country from a centralized socialist economy to a social market economy. The change momentum triggered in the country since then has remained fully on course, especially within the context of the ongoing public sector and socio-economic reform initiatives. Implementation of the socio-economic policy

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strategies outlined in the tenth Five-Year Plan continued, although not as rapidly as envisaged. The Government finalized the mid-term review of its tenth five-year development programme, and is in the process of finalizing the next five-year programme for 2011-2015.

7. This transformation is being pursued against the background of the regional situation, its challenges and the context of the specific circumstance of the Syrian Arab Republic as a key player in the region, particularly with the challenges posed by influx of refugees into the country from within the region and internally displaced persons. The situation has further been exacerbated by the severe repercussions of the drought that the country experienced in the last three years, coupled with the implementation of a set of economic reforms. In addition, the removal of subsidies on basic services and commodities hitherto intended to alleviate some of the economic pressures on the vulnerable sectors of the population further heightened the challenges the country is currently facing. Nevertheless, 2008 witnessed a détente in the regional situation, with several countries opening up to the Syrian Arab Republic. In 2009, the country recorded an economic growth rate of 5.5 per cent. Population dynamics, however, pose yet another challenge. In the Syrian Arab Republic, young people aged 10 to 24 years represent 36.3 per cent of the total population and youth aged 15 to 24 years constitute 22.2 per cent. Due to the projected trends in fertility and mortality, the proportion of the population in the working age is expected to increase at the expense of the under-15 population over the next decades, especially under the low and medium variant of population growth. The population of youth aged 15 to 24 is projected to increase from 4.2 million in 2005 to between 5.11 million and 5.17 million in the year 2025. This trend will translate to an annual increase in the number of new entrants into the labour market, estimated at 200,000 per annum, posing an intractable challenge in securing job opportunities and the financial burdens arising there from in order to benefit from the so-called demographic “dividend” or “window of opportunity, i.e., a growing segment of the working-age population relative to the dependent population.

8. The ongoing reform initiatives particularly focus on poverty reduction, addressing regional disparities, supporting rural development and meeting the needs of vulnerable groups, including women and children. As economic reform is gradually transforming the Syrian economy from a centrally planned to a market economy, that involves creating an active and socially responsible private sector while also seeking to tackle the endemic problems of governance and efficiency of the public sector.

9. Clearly, the authorities also recognize the Herculean task of reforming the public sector so as to serve as a driver of change and in support of the implementation of the ambitious reform initiative of the Government. This includes, among other things, the establishment of the appropriate regulatory framework and enabling environment for all stakeholders, including government. Also crucial for public sector reform is deliberate and targeted human and institutional capacity development to enable it to cope with the demands of the transition and reform process.

10. In addressing public sector reform, the Government is also pursuing a number of privatization policies to attract private capital investment to the country. This is being handled cautiously to ensure that the transition process is smooth and sustainable and that the sector functions with greater freedom.

11. In the last decade, the oil revenue declined, which has forced the Government to take decisive steps to diversify the economy, particularly in areas such as agriculture, trade and industry as a more viable alternative to the heavy dependence on the oil industry. The grim reality is that the Syrian Arab Republic is expected to become an oil importer by 2015, a fact that makes economic reforms an inevitable option in the light of its rapidly growing population.

12. Recent surveys undertaken by the National Bureau of Statistics as well as the United Nations and other donors estimate the level of unemployment as high as 20 per cent.

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Recognizing this fact, the Syrian Government has made job creation, through investment promotion and more private sector opportunities, one of its priority areas of concern. Thus, the need to promote and undertake measures required to accelerate investment and harness both human and physical capital cannot be overemphasized. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the private sector are recognized as playing an indispensable role to ensure rapid and sustainable GDP growth in order to reduce poverty, particularly in the light of the depletion of oil reserves and the weaknesses in the manufacturing sector. The Government further recognizes that faster economic growth also depends on reforms of the financial sector, which currently favours public enterprises and agriculture at the expense of manufacturing, private enterprises and SMEs. The Government has also expressed its determination to work with its development partners to foster regional integration and trade liberalization as a means of moving from an economy dominated by oil and primary export and by promoting import-substitution. Some of the steps taken by the Government in this direction include promoting South-South cooperation, the signing of a Free Trade Agreement with Turkey, the country’s recent accession to the World Trade Organization and the ongoing negotiations with the European Union for an Association Agreement in order to give further impetus to trade cooperation.

13. Undoubtedly, the global economic downturn has also signaled warnings to Syrian economic policymakers that the country was not immune to the hard realities of the global recession and, among other things, predictions are that 2010 will be a difficult year for the country, particularly in the light of the growing pool of an unemployed and unskilled labour force dominated by young people.

14. In the economic sphere, there is dynamic change process underway. The Government conveyed the recognition of the importance of governance reforms, including the civil service and the mass media/communication sectors as well as participation of civil society, to match the economic transformation.

III. United Nations support to the implementation of the national development agenda

15. UNDP and UNFPA have been able to forge a well-functioning partnership with the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic to support the implementation of the country’s development priorities, including the national plan for the achievement of the MDGs by the target date of 2015. Currently, UNDP provides technical support at both the policy and programmatic levels for the implementation of the country’s tenth Five- Year Development Plan (2007-2011).

16. During the visit, Board members met with highly influential senior cabinet ministers including the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, the national coordinating authority for UNDP and UNFPA operations in the Syrian Arab Republic, the Minister of the State Planning Commission, as well as the Social Welfare and Labour Minister, the Minister of Local Administration, the Minister of Information, and Governors of the most economically disadvantaged regions or governorates in the north-east as well as the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.

17. The Executive Board’s visit also provided a clear view of the United Nations system engagement with the country, which involves, among other things, concrete programmes such as the provision and/or facilitation of regional and international expertise to support the State Planning Commission in the formulation, coordination and execution of the short- and long-term socio-economic strategies for the country’s economic transformation agenda.

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18. Responses and interventions undertaken by the United Nations system in the Syrian Arab Republic within the context of government priorities across the country encompass such programmes and projects as:

(a) MDG scaling-up initiative

The Government launched an initiative entitled “100 poorest villages in Syria” and called for the development community to focus on poverty eradication in those villages. The United Nations system, led by UNDP, and including UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF, WFP, ILO and FAO, secured a joint response to the initiative through developing and launching a project on “Integrated Community Development for Up-Scaling the MDGs”. The initiative seeks to improve MDG-related service delivery through an integrated community development-based approach for poverty reduction, capacity development, education, environment sustainability and health-care delivery, among others. The Board visited, for example, a project in Kabajeb, one of the 100 poorest villages in the north-eastern region of the country, selected by the Government during the poverty mapping conducted in collaboration with UNDP, and particularly areas affected by drought in the past four years. Also worth noting was the rehabilitation of 35 ancient Roman wells in the three governorates of Deir Zor, Raqqa and Hassakeh to increase community access to clean water for household use, irrigation and livestock herding, while safeguarding environmental sustainability. This rehabilitation is part of a project funded by the Spanish Agency for Development and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund;

(b) Local governance reform

The United Nations system has also been assisting the Ministry of Local Administration in supporting a number of local governance interventions like the One Window Citizen Centres, devoted to the enhancement of efficiency in local governance, transparency and accountability, effective basic social services delivery in local administration and disaster and risk management; The Board witnessed the inauguration of a One Window Centre in the city of Raqqa. The Government of Spain sponsored the project with the technical assistance of UNDP with a view to improving municipal services and stemming graft through a simple, coherent and effective automated system, which could set the example for local administrations in the country. The Syrian Government is highly supportive of the initiative of digitalizing and simplifying administrative processes;

(c) The role of the private sector: the Global Compact Network

A session with representatives of the Global Compact Network for Syria revealed a classic case of the Global Compact at work. This was made possible through UNDP support to bringing the Government, the business community, and civil society closer as complementary partners in wealth creation and development by establishing the Global Compact Network in the Syrian Arab Republic. That has contributed to an increased role of the growing private sector in the country's socio-economic development process. It aims at achieving inclusive growth through enhancing civic engagement and utilizing corporate citizenship. UNDP is also finalizing three assessments studies on the impact of private sector practices on the environment; human and labour conditions; and anti-corruption and transparency in trade activity in the context of the Global Compact. The studies will provide recommendations for the Government to incentivize the private sector to adhere to the principles of the Global Compact;

(d) Youth development

The Youth Peer Volunteers Network (supported by UNFPA) and the Business Innovation and Development Centres (supported by UNDP) have been another of the innovative challenges that UNDP and UNFPA recently undertook;

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(e) Increasing access to information

Efforts are well under way to promote and improve access to information, through media reform and young journalists’ training with the aim of empowering them to actively participate in the development process and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. UNDP has supported media reform and media development in the Syrian Arab Republic, aimed at institutional and capacity development for media institutions, as well as enhancing the role of media in the national dialogue on development issues, and more importantly, as a means of enhancing access to information, linking policymakers to citizens for increased transparency and accountability, in line with the national strategy. The members of the Board met with the Minister of Information, as well as with a group of young journalists members of the Young Journalist Network established by UNDP, and now sponsored by the Ministry;

(f) Gender mainstreaming

The Women Empowerment Project (UNDP) and Community Mobilization Campaigns (UNFPA) are at the heart of the United Nations country team's operation in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Women Empowerment Project, designed with the technical assistance of UNDP and implemented by the Ministry of Social Affairs, seeks to provide poor women with conditional access to financial services through micro-finance in order to increase the household's financial security and help women own assets, and reduce their vulnerability to risks. Empowering them in this way helps them to become entrepreneurs and raise their awareness on a range of issues, such as reproductive health, education, governance, population, gender issues and gender-based violence.

(g) Humanitarian issues: support to displaced Iraqi populations in the Syrian Arab Republic

Since 2007, UNFPA has been rendering support to the Reproductive Health Clinics at the UNHCR Registration Centres for Iraqi refugees in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Board visited the UNHCR Douma Registration Centre for Iraqi refugees, where it met with reproductive health staff and beneficiaries of the UNFPA- supported Reproductive Health Clinic. While addressing general health concerns of Iraqis, the clinic personnel offer reproductive health counselling and services, including family planning and antenatal care, as well as secure necessary referrals to the free government health facilities available for Iraqi refugees. The Board witnessed the implementation of the WFP Electronic Vouchers System pilot project aimed at providing food assistance to the Iraqi refugees registered in the Syria who require such aid.

IV. Ownership, coordination and coherence19. Meetings with government officials and other stakeholders confirmed a significant sense of government ownership and leadership of the development process as well as the enhancement of strong partnership with UNDP and UNFPA. The UNDP/UNFPA-sponsored programmes visited are generally well aligned with the priorities identified in the tenth Five-Year Plan (2005-2010), which is the national development strategy and focuses primarily on the transition process of the economy.

20. UNDP played a central role in supporting the Government to develop this strategic framework, during which process it provided, among other things, the necessary technical support for poverty analysis and mapping within the context of the attainment of the MDGs. The United Nations country team is playing a critical role in enhancing the government attention to the MDGs and to socio-economically marginalized regions, particularly the governorates in the north-eastern part of the country. The country team has further sought to align the UNDAF planning cycle with that of the Government.

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21. The authorities see the United Nations agencies on the ground, in particular the UNDP and UNFPA, as trusted and reliable partners whose agenda are more practical and in support of the national development priorities. While this is an advantage in itself, it does, however, risk presenting the challenge of maintaining a healthy balance between responsiveness and strategic focus.

22. The Government has also increasingly demonstrated ownership and leadership through an equal cost-sharing collaboration with the United Nations system. The main focus of both agencies is on partnership with the Government. However, the involvement of civil society and/or the private sector in decision-making is still in the nascent stages. The agencies are endeavouring to go beyond “government ownership” by involving and empowering these stakeholders in many of their programmes. UNFPA does so, inter alia, through promoting demand-oriented services and its “culturally sensitive approach”. UNDP supports the Syria Trust for Development to establish a platform for development non-governmental organizations in the country; such a platform would provide technical assistance to and act as a forum for coordination among non-governmental organizations. Another noteworthy case in point is the evolving collaboration with the Syrian private sector and non-governmental organizations in promoting the Global Compact initiatives, particularly in the areas of corporate social responsibility and respect for human rights.

23. Significant policy dialogue between the Government and the United Nations country team is taking place on socio-economic matters, including some governance issues. In areas such as human rights, the need for strengthening the on-going dialogue was recognised. It is hoped that the eleventh five-year plan and the new UNDAF (2011-2016) will provide opportunities for enhanced dialogue on such issues. it is mainly through an “incremental” approach and “quiet diplomacy” the country team can engage on such matters.

24. Both agencies work through “national execution”, in the case of UNFPA exclusively, and in the case of UNDP for all interventions except for the Global Fund (direct execution) and the NGO Platform (non-governmental organization implementation). However, the agencies do not make significant use, as of now, of national systems (e.g., audit, evaluation, procurement, etc.) and UNDP still seems to be directly employing some staff for/through specific programmes and projects. Use of national systems may increase for instance with the introduction of the harmonized approach to cash transfer (HACT), the HACT micro-assessment being foreseen for 2010. Increasing efforts to build capacities of national systems and to use them would certainly be beneficial to enhance the effectiveness of the contribution of the agencies to the development of the Syrian Arab Republic.

25. Regarding coordination, UNDP supports, at the national level, the State Planning Commission, the focal ministry responsible for overall donor coordination (with central and sectoral coordination mechanisms) for the establishment of donor coordination mechanisms, including a donor assistance database. Coordination among development partners is relatively incipient. In view of its central role in donor coordination, the need to further strengthen the capacity of the State Planning Commission to discharge its coordinating responsibility effectively cannot be overemphasized.

26. The United Nations country team in the Syrian Arab Republic consists of nine resident agencies, namely, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), WFP, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the rest including the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the United Nations Conference on Trade

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and Development (UNCTAD), UNEP/UNRWA, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) are non-resident. The common strategy is the first UNDAF (2007-2011). The Resident Coordinator, who is at the same time the Resident Representative of UNDP and the Humanitarian Coordinator, leads the country team.

27. The country team coordinates on a regular basis, particularly through monthly coordination meetings, thematic working groups (e.g., HIV/AIDS, youth and adolescents, community development and MDG up-scaling), chaired by corresponding lead agencies as well as joint retreats, the first of which was held in March 2009. A joint retreat with the United Nations country team in Jordan was held in November 2009 to enhance coordination and cooperation at the subregional level. The resident coordinator puts a great deal of emphasis on the collegial functioning of the resident coordinator system with the resident coordinator in a coordinating function but leaving leadership space to heads of agencies in their specific fields. Other members of the country team express appreciation of the resident coordinator’s leadership and management style. “Good chemistry between personalities” is identified as a key ingredient for successful collaboration.

28. The country team is increasing the number of joint initiatives and programmes with the prominent examples of the MDG scaling-up initiative and the intended joint programme for youth development. The country team generally does not pool funding for these undertakings but employs the “parallel funding” modality (with the exception of the national social welfare fund, managed through pooled funding by UNDP and UNFPA). It does, however, agree on common outcomes the achievement of which is to be evaluated together. In addition, in some joint programmes UNDP is transferring its own core resources to other participating United Nations agencies. The process of agreeing on common outcomes and modalities is described by some members of the country team as time consuming, coordination also having its transaction costs for the team.

29. The country team agencies are beginning to harmonize business practices. They meet on a monthly basis within the operation support group. Thus far it has been decided to harmonize: logistics (led by WFP), publications (UNICEF) and travel (UNDP). The country team recently identified a location for common premises. Because of minimum operation security standards (MOSS) requirements no pre-existing building was found suitable. The country team found land on the premises of UNWRA and the country team is now looking for private financing to start building the house, which is intended to be eco-friendly. It is crucial that non-Executive Committee agencies also join. Once located in the same premise, the country team may seize the opportunity to further harmonize business practices in order to decrease transaction cost and enhance effectiveness.

30. The United Nations country team, including UNDP, appeared to continue to handle quite a substantial number of small-scale projects and programmes - albeit at the possible risk of fragmentation and atomization (“spreading thinly”). UNDP is aware of this challenge and has in the last two years already considerably reduced the number of projects. The proliferation of projects is not least due to the increasing level of support for non-core financing. In a few instances, it is also questionable whether projects, while probably useful per se, figure within the UNDP core mandate or if they should be prioritized from a national development perspective (e.g., support to English-language newspapers in Damascus, or training of diplomats). There certainly is potential to further decrease the number of projects, thereby increasing strategic focus. In addition, smaller- scale interventions require mechanisms for replication, institutionalization and scaling up. For example, the MDG scaling-up project will be piloted in 6 villages, with the intention of extending it to 24 additional villages in the north-

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eastern region. Then, a mechanism must be found to scale up lessons learned to the rest of the poorest 100 villages or so. The mechanism employed by UNDP in several projects is to pilot and show success, and only replicate through government or donor funding.

V. Impact of the cooperation between UNDP/UNFPA and the Syrian Arab Republic

31. The delegation visited a number of projects around the country launched and sponsored by UNDP and UNFPA, which among other things, are targeted at governance reform for efficiency, accountability and transparency at the national and local levels, poverty reduction, scaling up the MDGs, capacity-building in the public service and the local government machinery, gender mainstreaming, reproductive health, raising awareness against gender-based violence and promoting youth issues, as well as the provision of catalytic funding to advance the empowerment of women , and media development. Understandably, evidence of the impact of cooperation between UNDP/UNFPA and the Syrian Arab Republic is not immediately visible in the short term. In some cases, the impact can be felt while in others, it takes longer. The value-added, however, is that there exists a close collaboration between the United Nations country team and the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, owing significantly to the catalytic role the agencies play in the development aspirations of the country. UNDP and UNFPA enjoy considerable trust with the Government and are serving as a kind of clearing house for the facilitation of interventions and responses of other development partners.

32. UNDP and UNFPA efforts to reinforce national and local governance capacity to tackle poverty through policy advice and technical assistance to the Government are generating greater awareness concerning these issues. The focus of the UNDP projects on employment creation and income generation for the poor, especially among youth and disadvantaged groups, is gaining momentum and is projected to facilitate economic growth and reduce the high unemployment rate. Furthermore, despite challenges along the way, the Syrian Arab Republic is making good progress towards the implementation of the social market reform measures aimed at promoting inclusive, sustainable social and economic growth in the country, including the attainment of the MDGs.

33. With the support of UNDP and UNFPA, the Syrian Arab Republic has been able to improve its national institutional capacity for data collection, analysis and utilization. A typical case in point is the national effort in producing two major policy documents namely, the State of Syria Population Report, 2009 and the National Report on ICPD at 15 (UNDP), and poverty assessments, inequality studies and labour market studies (UNDP). The two documents supported by UNFPA have helped the Government to break former barriers to improved advocacy and communication on such issues as population growth, reproductive health information and services leading to the introduction of reproductive health-related standards of care and bringing cutting edge technical and scientific developments. The agency has been able to facilitate the establishment of, and operationalize 1,700 health-care centres around the country. The documents produced by UNDP are used as the basis for the elaboration of the National Development Strategy for the country and the ensuing eleventh Five-Year Plan.

34. Despite the support that the United Nations country team has provided to the Iraqi refugees, including the current and earlier groups totalling more than a million, the influx of these refugees has been weighing heavily on the country’s overburdened social services.

35. UNFPA support, including the United Nations country team on the ground, especially UNHCR, UNICEF and WFP, to the Syrian population and growing refugee community, has resulted in scaling up the HIV/AIDS response and prevention; promoting partnership modalities in support of youth development and participation, as well as reducing the level of

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maternal mortality; and enhancing strategic support to the national gender machinery and coordination system.

36. Given its specific circumstance as a key player in the region, coupled with being a middle-income country, the Syrian Arab Republic has been grappling with serious difficulties in dealing with the drought of 2007. Thus, in addition to support from the United Nations agencies and other partners, the country also had to rely more heavily on partners in the South for development cooperation in its efforts to address the humanitarian situation that confronted the Government following the drought in 2007. In this regard, the Syrian Arab Republic provides compelling evidence for strengthening and deepening South-South cooperation. The efforts of the United Nations system in the country to mobilize and coordinate this support have also been particularly crucial and represent good practice to be transposed to in similar situations.

37. Finally, UNFPA financial and technical contributions to enhance maternal health programmes among people, particularly with respect to the link between traditional healers and midwives and the formal medical system, have had a considerable impact on reducing maternal mortality in some municipalities that recorded the highest rates in the country in the past two years.

VI. Recommendations

38. The Government has implemented several important social and economic reforms; new laws have been enacted and existing ones have been modified; key players in the Government remain highly focused on economic reforms as well as the enhancement of the role of the private sector in overall development as a strategy for sustainable development and poverty reduction; informed management of population dynamics as well as the approach in tackling the challenges of biodiversity and climate change as a matter of immediate attention. Lending more support to the Government in its efforts to tackle the problems facing the people of the Syrian Arab Republic is a critical necessity.

39. While the United Nations support in middle-income countries like the Syrian Arab Republic certainly should aim at upstream policy advice and advocacy, practical questions arise such as how costly such an engagement is, who finances it (the Government, regular resources) and whether in addition to upstream activities some contributions to concrete pilot field implementation are required in order to enjoy acceptance by governments in policy dialogue and capacity-building. The Syrian country team clearly would welcome more resources, whereas a few government partners mentioned that what they need is more advice and dialogue with assistance.

40. While these promising examples of United Nations agencies “delivering together” are increasing in the Syrian Arab Republic and have to be further encouraged, there is potential for working together more strategically and systematically and/or in a coordinated fashion across different programmatic areas (e.g., gender, governance) beyond specific joint programmes. The new UNDAF provides the opportunity to advance on this path. For that purpose, the establishment of additional working groups (governance, gender and women empowerment, climate change and environment) which would in turn coordinate among themselves to avoid sectoral silos may help.

41. The new UNDAF results framework (2011-2016) can be made more solid than the existing one. For instance, the 2009 mid-term review of the UNDAF acknowledges that the UNDAF monitoring and evaluation framework “is rather weak, because indicators are not always measurable and/or verifiable for all outputs, and baselines and targets are not provided”. Hence

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the difficulty for the country team to systematically discuss and manage its contribution to development results. UNDP/UNFPA are also aware that it is crucial to further foster their own evaluation capacities, to address monitoring and evaluation systematically from the planning stage, as well as the challenge to rely increasingly on national capacities. In this context, it is good to note that UNDP intends to support the State Planning Commission monitoring and evaluation/results-based management capacities in the framework of the eleventh five- year plan and that the UNFPA vision is to secure a comprehensive and participatory approach, also relying on national capacities, rather than merely adhering to a conventional “monitoring and evaluation expert driven” approach. Joint evaluations have not been done so far but are foreseen in the case of initiating joint programmes.

VII. Observations and conclusions42. Following the Executive Board members extensive interface with the UNDP/UNFPA and the United Nations country team and other stakeholders, including the Government, the team observes that:

(a) Ensuring a healthy, secure and competitive business climate, investment promotion and the diversification of the economy are observed as some immediate key priorities for the revitalization of the economy;

(b) Governance reforms, especially public administration reforms, remain crucial for a meaningful or groundbreaking realization of the ongoing transformation to a market economy, if the Government is to be relieved of the burden of the under-employment and overstaffing syndrome that affects several programme countries;

(c) There is a need to generate pro-poor growth to ensure youth employment, while also addressing regional disparities by developing the nation's knowledge-social capital within the context of the prevailing global system;

(d) There is a need, as in every developing country, to urgently address environmental sustainability issues in the light of the periodic drought and increasing water demand, taking into account water availability and its governance.

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Annex IList of participants in the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board field visit to the Syrian Arab Republic – May 2010

Regional GroupCountry Name and title

Previous participation

if anyAfrican States

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Sierra Leone

Mr. Zénon MukongoSecond CounsellorPermanent Mission

Mr. Sulay-Manah J. KpukumuCounsellorPermanent Mission

Asian and Pacific States

Qatar

Pakistan

Pakistan

Yemen

H.E. Mr. Nasser Abdul Al-NasserAmbassador Extraordinary and PlenipotentiaryPermanent Representative

H.E. Mr. Amjad Hussain B. SialAmbassadorDeputy Permanent Representative

Mr. Muhammad AyubFirst SecretaryPermanent MissionVice-President of the UNDP/UNFPA Executive Board

Mr. Abdullah AlsaadiMinister PlenipotentiaryDeputy Permanent Representative

Kazakhstan (2008)

Eastern European States

Russian Federation Mr. Mikhail SavostianovEnvoy Extraordinary and Minister PlenipotentiaryDeputy Permanent Representative

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Azerbaijan Mr. Asif GarayevThird SecretaryPermanent Mission

Latin American and Caribbean States

Mexico

Antigua and Barbuda

Mr. Rodrigo PintadoThird SecretaryPermanent Mission

H.E. Mr. Conrod HunteAmbassador Extraordinary and PlenipotentiaryDeputy Permanent Representative

Western Europe and Other StatesSwitzerland

Mr. Matthias BachmannFirst SecretaryPermanent Mission

The team was accompanied by Ms. Rekha Thapa, Secretary of the Executive Board, and Mr. Kwabena Osei-Danquah, UNFPA Chief, Executive Board and External Relations Branch.

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Annex IIMeetings held and main points of meetingsTiming Participants Comments

Sunday 16 May14:55 Arrival RC, UNDP and UNFPA to meet

15:30 Check-in Hotel Rotana Suites Hotel 17:00-18:00 Meeting between the UNDP/UNFPA

Executive Board secretariat (Team) and SAR organizing team

Rotana Suites Hotel- conference room

20.00 Meet in Lobby of the hotel20.30 Welcoming dinner hosted by RC/RR and

UNFPA RepRestaurant Ahla Talleh- Qasion Mountain

Monday 17 May8.45 Team to meet in lobby Rotana Suites Hotel9.00-10.00 Briefing with RC, UNDP and UNFPA in the

hotelRotana Suites Hotel- conference roomOverall introduction to the country context, review of visit programme, outstanding issues

11.00-12.00 Deputy Prime Minister, HE Abdallah Dardari Meeting to concentrate on the overall socio-economic reform process (to which UN Agencies are contributing through the UNDAF) and UNDP/UNFPA contributions

12.15-12.45 Rest in Hotel Rotana Suites Hotel13.00-14.00 Minister of Information, HE Dr Mohsen Bilal Within the reform process, the Ministry of

Information is trying to initiate several interventions that aim at increasing access to information (within the nationally accepted standards). UNDP is supporting several initiatives towards that end, including for media reform, and capacity development for young journalists. In addition, UNFPA is supporting training for journalists for advocacy and awareness raising.

14.00-15.30 Lunch (hosted by the Minister of Information) Venue- La Fontana Restaurant- Mazzeh

Invitees include MoFA Minister, Deputy Minister and Head of International Cooperation Department

15.30-16.30 Internal meeting of the Team Rotana Suites Hotel- conference room16.30-17.00 Rest in Hotel Rotana Suites Hotel17.00 Team to meet at the lobby and depart to old

cityRotana Suites Hotel

17.00-20.30 Tour in the Old City Guide from Ministry of Tourism will be provided20.30-22.00 Reception (hosted by the RC) Invitees: government counterparts, donor

community, NGOs, private sector organizations, UNCT, UNDP and UNFPA staffVenue- Khan Asaad Basha (old town)

Tuesday 18 May9.15 Team to meet at the lobby Rotana Suites Hotel10.00-11.00 President of the State Planning Commission,

HE Dr Amer Lotfi SPC is the main counterpart for UNDP and UNFPA. In addition to their overall coordination role, they are implementing a number of important

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activities supported by UNDP and UNFPA, including the MDG Scaling-up initiative, aid coordination, among others.

12.00-13.00 Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, HE Dr Faisal Mokdad

Courtesy visit

13.00-15.00 Business lunch with members of the Global Compact (hosted by the UN Global Compact Network in Syria)

The Private Sector in Syria has been steadily growing in importance since 2005; however, its involvement in the socio-economic reform process is still picking grounds. UNDP supports the establishment of the Global Compact Network in Syria, which has been the fastest growing network in terms of memberships in the world. Venue- Four Seasons Hotel, Halabi Rest.

15.30-18.30 Internal meeting of the Team and free time Rotana Suites Hotel- conference room18.30 Meet in lobby Rotana Suites Hotel19.00-20.00 Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, HE Dr

Diala Hajj ArefMoSAL is an implementing partner for a number of UNDP and UNFPA supported projects, including on social protection (joint project between the two agencies), women empowerment, labor, gender and youth

20.30-22.30 Dinner in Old City with selected Ministers and UNCT (hosted by RC/RR and UNFPA)

Narenj Restaurant- Old Town Straight Street

Wednesday 19 May8.00 Check out from hotel Rotana Suites Hotel8.45 Meet in Hotel Lobby

Departure to Douma Registration CenterRotana Suites Hotel

9.30 Arrival at Douma Center Similar to approx 1300 similar health centers nationwide supported by UNFPA, this RH clinic was established in close coordination with UNHCR and Syrian Red Crescent to provide services to Iraqi refugees upon arrival.

9.30-11.15 Visit to Center

11.15 Departure from Center12.00- 12.45 Minister of Local Administration, HE Dr

Tamer HajjehDecentralization and local governance reforms are prominent in the reform agenda of the country. UNDP has been supporting different initiatives with the Ministry, including on local governance reforms, municipal decentralization, and Disaster Risk Reduction.

13.00-15.00 Business Lunch with donors (Hosted by RC) Kiwan Palace Restaurant- Mazzeh area

15.00 Departure Damascus By Land17.30 Arrival Palmyra 17.30-18.00 Check in Hotel Zanoubia Cham Palace- Oasis 18.30-22.30 Visit to Palmyra-sightseeing and dinner (paid

by mission members)Guide from Ministry of Tourism will be providedDinner in a traditional Bedouin tent

Thursday 20 May8.00 Team to meet at the lobby Zanoubia Cham Palace- Oasis8.30 Departure from Palmyra By road10.30 Arrival in Kabajeb village10.30-12.30 Field visit in Kabajeb village - The MDG Scaling up initiative is being initiated in

Syria as a joint UN programme to eradicate poverty in the 6 poorest villages of the country. Initiative led by UNDP with participation from UNFPA, FAO,

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UNICEF, WHO, WFP and ILO- The visit also includes the opening of one of the Roman Wells rehabilitated by UNDP, funded by Spain in response to the drought (present- Spanish Ambassador and SPC President)

12.30 Departure Kabajeb village to Deir Zor By road13.30 Arrival in Deir Zor and check in hotel Forat Cham Palace 13.30-15.00 Lunch break (hotel restaurant recommended)15.15 Meet in Hotel Lobby Forat Cham Palace15.15-16.45 Visit to Deir Zor- Community mobilization

campaigns on Gender/RH – Interactive theater performance; dialogue; etc. (UNFPA)

Al-Nahda Center (Non-Governmental organization)

16.45-18.00 Visit to Deir Zor- BusinessInnovation and Development Center (UNDP)

BIDC premises

18.00-19.00 Internal meeting of the Team Forat Cham Palace20.00-22.00 Dinner hosted by Deir Zor Chamber of

Commerce and IndustryInvitees include the members of the Chamber of Commerce, Governor and selected community leaders, in addition to Spanish Ambassador and President of State Planning Commission

Friday 21 May7.00 Check out from Hotel Forat Cham Palace7.30 Team to meet at the lobby to depart to

RaqqaBy land

7.30-9.00 Drive to Masrab village Women Empowerment initiative/ meeting with women beneficiaries in one village (UNDP)9.00-10.00 Visit to village and meet with local

communities10.00 Departure from Masrab By road 10.30 Arrival in Raqqa By road10.30-11.30 Opening of the Business Innovation and

Development CenterAn initiative implemented by UNDP to enhance youth employability and entrepreneurship through skills development (center newly established)

11.30-12.30 Opening of the One Window Facility in Raqqa Municipality

UNDP supports the Ministry of Local Administration in local governance reforms, through the simplification of processes most used by citizens. The One window is expected to increase transparency and accessibility and efficiency of services. This is one of 8 pilot centers established by the Ministry with the support of UNDP

13.00-15.00 Lunch (hosted by Governor of Raqqa) Al-Assad LakeInvitees include the Governor, community leaders, and Spanish Ambassador

15.00 Departure from Raqqa to Aleppo By road18.00 Arrival in Aleppo and check in hotel Dedeman Hotel –Aleppo 18.00-22.00 Free time to visit Aleppo

Free dinner in AleppoSaturday 22 May6.00 Team to check out hotel Dedeman Hotel –Aleppo6.30 Depart Aleppo10.30 Arrival Damascus 10.30-11.30 Check in and rest in Hotel Rotana Suites Hotel - conference room11.30 Team to meet at the hotel lobby Rotana Suites Hotel

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11.45-13.00 Roundtable discussion with young journalists Tawasul network for young journalists was established by UNDP (incubated within the Ministry of Information). The Network is designed to function as a meeting form for the exchange of ideas and resources for young media professionals

13.00-14.00 Lunch break

14.00 Meeting Prime Minister

Meeting with Youth Peer volunteers- UNFPA Sheraton Hotel, Damascus16.00-19.00 Report writing Rotana Suites Hotel Conference Room19.00-20.00 RC, UNDP and UNFPA Country office debriefing

Rotana Suites Hotel Conference Room20.00 Dinner Hosted by Deputy Minister of Foreign

AffairsBoulevard Restaurant

Sunday 23 May4.00 Check out from hotel Rotana Suites Hotel4.15 Departure to Damascus Airport

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outline of the - undpweb.undp.org/execbrd/word/dp2010crp2.doc · web viewinvitees include mofa...

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