Fiji Government Calls on Donors

(Friday, January 28th, 2011, No:0227/MOI )

The Fijian Government has called on donors to coordinate better and assist with projects that support the implementation of the Roadmap for Democracy and Sustainable Socio Economic Development.

And in making the call, Government asked donor countries to use the procedures and processes that Government has available to facilitate aid.

United Nations Development Program official Toily Kurbanov acknowledges Government’s call saying it is a reasonable one.

“Aid needs to support the work of Government,” he said.

The Overseas Development Assistance Unit chief economic planning officer Sereima Bulouniwasa noted that to harmonise and align donor procedures and processes to Government systems was a big challenge.

“Government has existing procedures and processes that donors could make more use of,” she said.

“Government recognises the varying differences we both have in processes and procedures but also recognises the huge potential for
improvement we can both achieve.

“These procedures and processes may not be the best but can be fine tuned and streamlined to minimise time, transactions and ease pressure on existing capacity in Fiji.”

Ms Bulouniwasa said Government would need to develop procedures and guidelines that will need to be discussed further with donors on a bilateral basis, multilateral and financial agencies.

“These processes are not exotic and may include project approvals, monitoring, evaluation, tendering contracts and programme evaluation,” she said.

ENDS

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