Linking EU objectives and country sector strategies in programming assistance. Coordination of donors and evaluation of the IPA instrument Presented by Zara Halilovic Bosnia and Herzegovina DEI / Division for Coordination of the EU Assistance Tel: Zara.

Content: 1. Overall State of play (EU Objectives, Strategic documents and IPA utilization); 2. BiH environment for Donors Community activities; 3. Coordination of bilateral donors; Conclusions.

1. Overall state of play - EU objectives BiH - a potential candidate country; - access to IPA components I and II; The main BiHs documents: 1.BiHs Action Plan on implementation of SAA Interim Agreement; 2.BiHs Action Plan on implementation European Partnership 2007; 3.BiHs Legal harmonization priority program for implementation of EU partnership and interim agreement.

1. Overall state of play – Strategic documents in BiH Sectoral strategies; 1.81 strategies - cover different sectors - prepared at different government levels; 2.Fewer number of strategies is prepared at the national level; 3.Missing National strategies: Transport, Environment, Rural development; 4.Different status and different states of implementation.

1. Overall state of play – BIH horizontal Strategic documents (a ) National Strategy on Integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the EU, Document adopted; Whole set of necessary measures covering four areas: 1. Political criteria, 2. Economic criteria, 3. Ability to assume obligations from the membership, 4. External policies of the EU. Gives an overview by sectors in the following areas: 1. Situation in the EU, 2. Situation in BiH, 3. Necessary measures. Implementation's deadline: Comprehensive document covering time period until the full time membership.

1. Overall state of play – BIH horizontal Strategic documents (b) EU process requires preparation of National Development Plan (NDP) precursor of which is National Development Strategy (NDS); BIH: National Development Strategy (NDS) - in the final phase of preparation; 6 strategic goals and 19 sub goals - 19 sub working groups; Completed draft of (NDS) shared with donor community; 5 Operational programs and indicators per each Strategic goal to be prepared by March 2010; (SIS) Social inclusion strategy and its Operational program to be completed upon completion of (NDS); Relevant Strategic and Operational documents for EU process (SCF, OP) to strongly relay at the (NDS).

1. Overall state of play - Utilization of IPA instruments National Strategy for the Application of the Decentralized System for Managing Assistance Programs of EC in BiH; Strategy adopted, Road map and action plan soon to be prepared; Development of necessary capacities for accreditation of DIS: - IPA component I: indicative date mid – 2011; - IPA component II: earlier than comp. I. BiH - initiated preparatory activities on developing capacities for the IPA components III, IV and V; Separate sector strategies needed for efficient and smooth utilization of the IPA components III, IV and V: - Adopted: National Strategy on SME development and the Number of Strategies on Education policies; - Missing: State level Strategies on Transport, Environment, Rural development and Labor policies.

2. BiH environment for Donors Community activities (a) Significant number of donors (19) ones are gradually phasing out; Global economic crises – significant budget reduction sensed at all government levels; MIPD : The lessons learned is that EC assistance must not only reflect European partnership principles but in the broader sense Paris declaration, must also be interlocked with Bosnia and Herzegovina own development and action plans. Future EU assistance will promote ownership by ensuring that project are in line with Bosnia and Herzegovina own reform strategies. ECD - organized consultation process on MIPD with Donors Community;

2. BiH environment for Donors Community activities (b) BiH mechanism for Coordination of Donors Community (DC): - MF&T BiH through Sector for Coordination of the International Assistance (SCIA): in general; - DEI through Sector for Coordination of the European Union Assistance (SCEUA): relevant for EU integration process.

3. Coordination of bilateral donors – MF&T Maintaining Donor Mapping Database; Publishing annual Donor Mapping Report (latest edition October 2009); Convenes quarterly Donor Co-ordination Forums (DCF); Written mechanisms and procedures for aid coordination under development; MoUs to be concluded with all donors committed to new mechanisms and procedures; Monitoring and Evaluation Guidelines for all development projects under preparation; Public Investment Programme for period of ( ) - prepared; Grant Resource Management Scheme made operational; Full integration of aid flow and capital investments with public sector budgeting process under way;

3. Coordination of bilateral donors – DEI (a) DEI- planned, organized and led all three programming processes of IPA (2007, 2008, and 2009); ECD - organized regular meetings with bilateral donors on annual programming; DEI – organized specific meetings in order to introduce the whole programming process and all the final drafts of project fiches; DEI - more and more active in this field; Programming of IPA 2010: DEIs activities have moved one step forward; In what way?

3. Coordination of the bilateral donors - DEI (b) Supporting communication between the active bilateral donors and the network of the SPOs; Preparation of overview of donors assistance in line with the MIPD sectors and project areas; Selcting the lead donors on behalf of the other donors for specific sectors of MIPD; Cooperating with the lead donors and through them with the other donors; Cooperation with MF&T/SCIA: - Exchanging of mutual information, - Taking part in regular meeting of Donor Coordination Forum (DCF) organized by MF&T in order to present accomplishments of annual programming process (DCF at 6th October 2009).

Conclusions DEIs support to the SPOs in the areas of cooperation with the donors in the course of the annual programming process for IPA component I; More intensive communication between the DEI and the SPOs with the Donors Community in the BiH with the aim of assuring support to the process of EU integrations; Exchange of information between the DEI and the MF&T as a two BiH key coordinators of the Donor Communitys assistance in different areas; DEIs participation in the activities of the Donor Coordination Forum with the aim of unifying the activities of the two key coordinators in practice; Larger involvement of the Donors Community in the annual programming process assured by the DEI; Communication with the donors community is based on their activities within the MIPD specific sector and relevant BiH Strategies; This progress is made at the moment in which some of the bilateral donors are phasing out from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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