NGOs told to direct funds through fiscus

fiscus rather than the current scenario where various disbursements modalities are being used,
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda said yesterday.
He said this in Harare during the signing ceremony of the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF) for the period between 2012 and 2015.
Dr Sibanda said Zimbabwe was no longer a classic humanitarian case, hence more financial and technical assistance should now be channelled towards developmental programmes.
“It must be acknowledged that Zimbabwe is not a classic humanitarian case and as such, some resources being mobilised by the Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) under the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP) could actually be earmarked for development projects under ZUNDAF,” said Dr Sibanda.
For the 2012-2015 ZUNDAF, Government represented by Dr Sibanda and UN agencies represented by UN resident and humanitarian co-ordinator, Mr Alain Noudehou, signed a US$600 million grant to be channelled towards agreed priority areas.
These areas of priority are food security, pro-poor sustainable growth and economic development, sound management and sustainable use of environment, natural resources and land, improvement of basic social services, HIV and Aids prevention, care and treatment, women empowerment, gender and equality and good governance.
Dr Sibanda said these programmes enunciated in the ZUNDAF document were consistent with the contemporary development principles, such as results based management and the rights based approaches.
“The new ZUNDAF 2012-2015 document has been harmonised with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Government of Zimbabwe’s development agenda,” said Dr Sibanda.
He assured the UN agencies that the development assistance availed to the country would be managed with greater accountability and transparency.
He said this would be done through existing Government structures such as committees for aid co-ordination, aid technical committee and the CAP among others.
“The main thrust of the architecture on aid co-ordination is the harmonisation of the various aid initiatives in order to ensure that the deployment of aid is in accordance with the national priorities identified by Government,” said Dr Sibanda.
Explaining the ZUNDAF process, UN’s Mr Noudehou said a series of joint exercises were held since 2010, providing information and strategies needed to design an evidence-based development framework.
Mr Noudehou said to guide development of agency country programmes, a joint implementation list would be developed.
This, he said would map out individual agencies’ areas of intervention within a strategy that recognised the critical role played by each agency.
“This matrix is therefore a tool that will provide agencies with a platform from which to ensure coherent and integrated action in implementing the ZUNDAF,” Mr Noudehou said.
In addition to the US$600 million, Mr Noudehou said the UN was looking forward to engage other development partners for improved resource mobilisation.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by other senior Government officials from the President’s Office, Permanent Secretaries, head of departments, UN agencies head of delegations and their staff.
Head of delegations from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), International Labour Organisation (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), OCHA and the World Health Organisation also appended their signatures to the ZUNDAF.