National Development Planning, Implementation, and Assessment

Abstract

This chapter traces UN engagement in the planning processes of the new Pacific Island nations. Each came to independence with poor infrastructure and low levels of human, social, and economic development. A tradition of articulating “national development plans” emerged to guide the transition from colonial society and economy to nation-building. Initial stages of ad hoc contributions by UN “development advisory teams” gradually gave way to broader engagement by increasing numbers of UN specialist agencies – UNDP, FAO, UNCTAD, WHO, and ITU, amongst others. Over time, the proliferation of national plans, together with multiplication of UN and non-UN development partners, generated problems of coordination that required greater specification of planning, funding, implementation, and evaluation processes. The UN responded with “standard basic agreements” that set out its relationship as a development partner with each member-state, and these have been complemented in more recent years with “common country assessments” that set out the agreed assessment of development status and priorities. The chapter lays the groundwork for discussion of six development challenges that are discussed in subsequent chapters: (1) the influence of funding on selection of development priorities; (2) the utility of international rather than domestic expertise; (3) the distribution of “ownership” between UN agencies and member-states; (4) aid coordination generally, but including identification of regional as compared to national development project leadership, funding, and coordination; (5) the relationship between national development priorities and the UN’s global development agenda; and (6) the performance of monitoring and evaluation of UN engagement.