| MULTI-BILATERAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP COORDINATION GROUPS
as on August 1999
1. Education UNESCO has suggested the following themes for the next group
meeting on education: 2. Women in Development (WID) Donor Group Participating Organisations: Actionaid, APCTT, DFID, British Council, CIDA, DANIDA, FES, Ford Foundation, GTZ, Embassy of Japan, ILO, ICA, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Embassy of Sweden, French Embassy, SDC, UNAIDS, UNDCP, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNIFEM, USAID, Voluntary Services Overseas, WFP Meetings are convened on a rotating basis. Facilitating Agency: UNIFEM 3. Local/Good Governance SIDA hosted another meeting at the Embassy of Sweden on 14 June 1999. The main objective of the meeting was to update the participants on the issue of Panchayat Raj in India. Following the presentation made by the Institute of Social Sciences about the SIDA-supported PRI project in Rajasthan and Orissa, Ms. Sudha Pillai gave the background of the 73rd and 74th Amendment. The presentations very informative and stimulated further discussion. The felt that there was a need to find best practices and models for PRI training in India. It was also suggested to look into the possibilities of either strengthening the existing system or creating institutions to ensure that PRIs become a functional reality. Participating Organisations: ADB, CIDA, DANIDA, DFID, FES, Ford Foundation, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, National Foundation for India, OXFAM India Trust, Care India, Action Aid, Capart, Royal Netherlands Embassy, European Commission, Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, SIDA, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID and World Bank. Meetings are convened on a rotating basis. Facilitating Agency: UNDP 4. HIV / AIDS In addition to UNAIDS, development partner coordination in the field of HIV/AIDS in India functions through the UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS in India. This Group, convened by UNAIDS, meets regularly, 3-4 times a year. The Theme Group has the objective of stimulating HIV/AIDS related activities of the UN System in India in support of the national programme effort and also of defining areas of comparative advantage for each agency’s contribution. At present it consists of nine UN agencies, the Government of India (NACO), and since 1999 major bilaterals working on HIV: AusAID, CIDA, DFID, and USAID. The Groups work is complemented on the technical level with a bi-weekly Focal Points meeting where substantive programmatic issues are discussed and more detailed areas of cooperation/sharing identified. Its other activities are information sharing and joint planning and implementation of inter-agency activities. This year a concerted effort to develop a collaborative framework among all bilaterals, the UN system, and the Government of India was launched. After a 3-day retreat involving all stakeholders in September 1999, a common strategy paper " India Responds to HIV/AIDS" was prepared, supported by the first integrated work plan. Participating Organisations: UN Theme Group: UNAIDS Co-sponsoring agencies (UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCO, WHO, World Bank and UNDCP), Government of India (NACO), ILO, UNIFEM, USAID, DFID, AusAid and CIDA. Inter-Agency Focal Points Group: UNAIDS, UNDCP, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, WHO, World Bank, AUSAID, CIDA, DFID, USAID, with open invitations to other agencies/bilateral development organisations. Convening Agency: UNAIDS 5. Industry and Private Sector Development After extensive consultations within the Group, the Group has decided to continue with its initial Terms of Reference (TOR) as a forum for exchanging and sharing information on private sector development issues. It was further agreed that each meeting should be more focussed on either sectoral or thematic issues. Following the departure of the UNIDO Representative and the Programme Officer, the convenor of the Group will, temporarily, be Mr. V. S. Oberoi, ARR, Industry and Employment Division, UNDP till the next UNIDO Representative takes over. Participating Organisations: ADB, APCTT, Canadian High Commission, DFID, Embassy of France, Embassy of Italy, Embassy of Japan, ILO, ILO-SAAT, JICA, Royal Danish Embassy, Royal Embassy of Belgium, Royal Norwegian Embassy, SDC, UNDP, UNIDO, USAID and the World Bank. Convened on rotating basis, led by UNIDO 6. Project Implementation The group met on 10 March 1999. The members were informed about the note on technical cooperation, which was forwarded to the Government last year but could not be presented to the India Development Forum (IDF), as the event was not held. The other issues dealt with in this meeting were the infobase/database on Development Cooperation and the Development Cooperation Report which had been discontinued after 1994 due to difficulties in collection of information from various agencies. In view of the opinions expressed by the members on the above issue, it was decided to set up a smaller group comprising of the interested members to look into the matter in detail and also to formulate a draft work plan for 1999 for consideration of the larger group. JICA, EU, UNDP and USAID expressed their interest in joining the smaller group, with ActionAid invited as a special invitee. Participating Organisations: ADB, CIDA, EC, Royal Netherlands Embassy, UNDP, USAID and World Bank Convening Agency: UNDP 7. Water Sector A Water Sectoral Coordination Meeting on Public Private Partnership was held on 5 August 1999. The focus of this meeting was the pilot project to contract out operation and maintenance of a multi village rural water supply scheme to users. The meeting was attended by around 40 individuals representing multi and bilateral funding agencies, the District Magistrate of Meerut, representatives of the UP Jal Nigam and members of the community to whom the O&M has been contracted out. Presentations made at the meeting focused on the background, objectives, landmarks, policy reforms, the current status and on lessons learnt. This was followed by an open house discussion. Participants stressed the need for strengthening the regulatory framework so that replication of this model would be easier and less individual based. Participating Organisations: ADB, AUSAID, CIDA, CSE, Development Alternatives, SIDA, DFID, Embassy of Japan, FAO, Ford Foundation, IFC, JICA, OECF, Planning Commission (GOI), RGNDWN, WSP-SA, SDC, SIDA, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNDP, USAID, WHO, World Bank, SEWA, IDFC, ILFS, FIRE Project, DTUP Convening Agency: Water and Sanitation Programme-South Asia
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