The Second joint dialogue between the Solomon Islands Government and its Development partners has concluded successfully in Honiara last week.
The Dialogue is an important avenue which SIG and Development discuss development issues and challenges affecting the country with the aim of forging mutual understanding to addressing these challenges.
It was also an opportunity for SIG and Development Partners to exchange information and views to complement development programs and activities.
The dialogue began with presentations from the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury to informed participants of Solomon Islands monetary outlook, the Government’s key priorities including the NDS 2016-2035 objectives and fiscal outlook.
The main agenda centered on Development Cooperation & Partnerships and ways to improve coordination and collaboration and enhance the effectiveness of development interventions.
Permanent Secretaries from various SIG ministries also took the opportunity to highlight the existing platforms and arrangements which ensure constructive and meaningful engagement.
Development Partners raised the need for a mechanism or platform to discuss cross sectoral issues and identify ways to address those binding constraints and create and improve the enabling environment for development programmes and initiatives.
The need for a centralized information and data repository to enable and facilitate for information sharing, storage and dissemination was also highlighted
Permanent Secretary of Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination, Ms. Susan Sulu (MNPDC) informed the dialogue of the ongoing work to improve Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL), highlighting the importance of having a good MEL system in place that will be able to provide information, data and evidence to inform planning, decision making and policy formulation.
Ms. Sulu stated, “The MNPDC is collaborating with the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI) to undertake a MEL diagnostic which will inform an action plan to strengthen MEL systems and capacities across the government”.
The SIG and Development Partners Joint Dialogue is a bi-annual event, which aims to foster partnership and mutual understanding between SIG and Partners providing support in various sectors in order to effectively contribute to Development Programs and activities in the country.
The Joint Dialogue ended with clear outline on ways forward for good development cooperation against the backdrop of the current COVID-19 global pandemic.
It was hosted by the Ministry of National Planning and Development Coordination (MNPDC) and was chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Ms. Susan Sulu.
Representatives from Development Partners, SIG Permanent Secretaries and the Deputy Governor of CBSI were in attendance.
-GCU Press