The Arab Spring Five Years Later by Ghanem Hafez;

The Arab Spring Five Years Later by Ghanem Hafez;

Author:Ghanem, Hafez;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press


Involvement of Donors in Iraq

Implementation is a serious problem in Iraq, an example of a fragile country that is reconstructing in a context of political instability and weak governance.16 According to the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators, Iraq is ranked twentieth from the bottom, after Liberia and the Republic of the Congo, in government effectiveness and fifth, after Sudan and Afghanistan, in political stability.17 In addition, owing to decades of economic sanctions, Iraq's government officials have limited knowledge and experience in international commercial activities, further discouraging foreign businesses. Even official donors avoid implementing large-scale projects.

To address these difficulties, JICA and the Iraqi government agreed to introduce a unique monitoring platform composed of three pillars: increased interaction, a multilayer structure, and the presence of the UNDP. A first priority was to build the capacity of Iraqi staff, who had little experience implementing donor-financed projects. Project entities set up a project management team for each project, and the Iraqi government decided to limit staff rotations so as to encourage capacity development and knowledge sharing. Each team has to submit a monthly project progress report. The Japan International Cooperation Agency reviews the report and provides feedback. The progress report and feedback cover important aspects of project management and contribute to establishing the project management framework. Regular and structured interaction between the relatively inexperienced Iraqi staff and their JICA counterparts is designed to build capacity and help Iraqi staff identify the main constraints on project implantation and develop ways of resolving them.

Second, a multilayered monitoring system was introduced, and a committee including representatives from high-level oversight agencies such as the Prime Minister's Advisory Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Planning was established to periodically oversee the various projects. Quarterly monitoring meetings that included all the relevant actors were introduced. In those meetings, project entities discuss best practices and common problems, while JICA and the high-level oversight agencies evaluate project entities based on measureable factors of their performance. They praise project management teams that had good performance records and encourage those that have bad performance records to improve.

Third, JICA and the Iraqi government agreed to partner with the UNDP to provide additional support to project implementation. The UNDP staff had easier access to projects in areas affected by strife than JICA officials and thus were better able to capture actual implementation problems through direct access rather than via emails or phone calls. Based on the findings, they provide analyses and evaluations in monthly reports and quarterly monitoring meetings. In addition, the presence of the UNDP alleviated an unequal relationship between donor and recipient. Such imbalanced relationships or feelings between donors and recipients are often observed in implementation of aid projects. But being a recognized international organization, the UNDP's assessments are considered to be an independent third-party's opinion, which contributes not only to maintaining a well-balanced relationship among stakeholders but also to improving monitoring effectiveness.

This system has led to an improvement in the implementation efficiency of JICA's projects in Iraq. For example, during



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