nextAlmost nothing beats a good peer review of Country Programme
Documents – that is, if you are interested in programmes and programme quality.
If last month’s preview in Geneva of 11 draft CPDs from CEE/CIS region was half
as inspirational for the presenters as it was for the reviewers, then it was
time and money well spent. To start with, I now can point to Kyrgyzstan on any
world map and know how to spell the name of Turkmenistan’s capital.
By and large, it seems, the Human Rights Based Approach to Programming and
Results Based Management are settling in. Our new programmes are increasingly
addressing the right thing in the right way. We are also talking results, not
aspirations.
Notably, the beneficiaries - or recipients[1] - have
disappeared from the vocabulary of UNICEF cooperation. Instead, we are set to
become the mediator between those with claims and those with duties, help to
codify these relationships in better national or sub-national policies, and
strengthen capacities. This is good news.
But we need to become better at some critical issues. According to the majority
of the presentations, the world moves irreversibly on a downhill path. Poverty
is increasing, gaps are widening and services are declining. Perhaps such
statements are meant to provide texture to what would otherwise be drab
documents. Perhaps they are true. But data were not provided to support such
assertions and, if at all, we are given only anecdotal evidence.
More importantly, while our eyes and minds are getting trained on making out
discrimination and marginalization, we still have a long way to go in describing
the people who are marginalized and excluded, and the underlying causes
for their predicament. Do we know who they are, what they do, where they live
and what they think?
Previously, it was easy enough to find a beneficiary by pulling off the airport
road and walking into the next primary school or health centre. But the
marginalized and excluded may not go to school or attend clinics. The household
surveyors are not going to talk to those not living in a household. And it is
very hard to find the neglected and abused, unless they have begun to speak up
for their rights.
Increasingly, we have been getting caught up in upstream issues that include
global goals, UN frameworks, development theory, abstract PRSPs, macro-pictures,
and generalized policy statements. And while we no longer want to be the
benefactor aiding the beneficiaries, it will require a great deal of
determination and ingenuity to ensure that the marginalized and excluded
people don’t disappear from our focus, too.
[1] Webster: Beneficiary = One who receives anything as a gift; one who receives a benefit or advantage
(13 February 2004)
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