1. Strategic Planning in Post-Crisis Contexts New York 13-14 November 2008

2. Introductions
Name
Organization / Country
Role

3. Workshop Goals
Building capacity to lead effective post crisis planning efforts
Knowledge and tools for new strategic planners
Shared understanding among UN system participants of roles for strategic planners and other planning participants
Greater clarity on a systematic approach to the planning process: goals, design and implementation
Greater clarity on skills planners need, and on support for skill building

4. Groundrules
Participation: many views, much experience, need for focused comments
Frank discussion of issues, no formal record of individual comments
Cell phones silent (internet access in lobby)

5. Agenda Day 1 Purpose, principles and context for post-crisis planning
UN system planning: roles, tools and coordination
Initiating Planning

6. Agenda Day 2 Assessing transition needs
Defining UN comparative advantage
Building Stakeholder Support
Strategies and skills: negotiation with stakeholders; results-based management
Skills and Support for Planners

7. A word about using the case…
Fictitious case… still incomplete info…
Hopefully reflective of many of the dynamics we collectively and typically face
Purpose is to Stimulate Thinking
Bring in your experiences…
I.e., don’t get bogged down in the case… use it as a common foundation for group discussions

8. Session 1 Transition Planning: Context and Principles
At your tables (10 min):
Why plan? What are 3-5 reasons for UN country presences to undertake strategic planning exercises?

9. Strategic Priority Setting for UN Country Teams
MD/MDGs/
International norms
Major Challenge
UNCT Comparative Advantage 2
Alignment of key actors to support UNCT action 1 3 4
Key idea: UN RC/RR/Agency Rep. needs to be able to identify and set strategic priorities systematically.
Main criteria for priority setting are represented as three circles: national challenges and opportunities; UNCT capacity/comparative advantage, and alignment of key actors with decision making power and influence to support UNCT action on an issue.
Note: MDs, MDGs and other international agreements and norms are also a point of reference for UNCT. Here, we assume that they’ll be reflected in UNCT commitment to gear capacity and comparative advantage toward MD/MDGs, and in the overlap between UNCT and national challenges.
At any point in time, these three circles are shifting and shiftable to differing degrees:
National challenges shift due to factors largely beyond UNCT’s control
UNCT comparative advantage (mandate plus capacity plus ability to perform better than others) can shift over time through decisions and actions by RC and CT Representatives and staffs
Alignment can increase through processes of negotiation and consensus building, which RC/RR/Agency heads can lead and/or participate in
Top priorities (area 1) are the situations where all three criteria are met. UNCT can take action now and do some good.
Potential high priorities (areas 2 and 3)
Area 2: situations where there is a national challenge and UNCT capacity to meet the challenge, but key actors aren’t yet in alignment to support UNCT action. UN RC/RR/Agency Rep. can take strategic action through negotiation and consensus building to increase alignment. However, it may be impossible to gain support of key actors, in which case UNCT should not proceed.
Area 3: situations where there is a challenge, and key actors are in principle supportive of UNCT action, but UNCT doesn’t actually have the comparative advantage to act. UNCT may be able to draw on regional/global UN capacity, something that will usually take time. Critical questions are whether capacity can be built quickly enough to respond effectively, and whether others are already better positioned and UNCT would be duplicative.
Lower priorities (area 4) are situations where the Country Team has capacity and other actors are supportive, but action by the UNCT isn’t likely to make a significant contribution to major national challenges. These may be the hardest internal negotiations for UNCTs. There will be a strong temptation to do it “because we can.”
Top strategic priority
Potential high priority: use negotiation/consensus building to seek alignment
Potential high priority: draw on regional/global UN capacity where feasible
4. Lower priority: does not meet major challenge

10. Session 1 (2) Transition Planning: Context and Challenges
At your tables (15 min):
What makes strategic planning in post-crisis settings more challenging?

11. Session 2 Transition Planning in the UN Context:
-- Roles, Tools and Processes
Development
Humanitarian
Peace-Keeping
Political Affairs

12. Session 2 (2)
Based on these presentations, the Matoto case, and your own experiences:
Identify some of the key challenges and opportunities (institutionally) of coordinated / joint planning.

13. Session 2 (3) Transition Planning in the UN Context:
-- Roles, Tools and Processes
Early Recovery Advisors (ERAs) and Peace and Development Advisors (PdAs)
Integrated Peace Building Strategies (PBSO)
Integrated Planning in Practice: Haiti

14. Matoto Overview 3 years of violent civil war
Resource / ethnic / regional triggers
Food insecurity / high youth unemployment
Kizu in the north: oil rich, human development poor
March 2006: Peace brokered by UN/EU
Interim Administration
June 2007: Legislative Elections
Fractured representation; Coalition Govt
Natl Election (2010); Local (no timeline)

15. UNIMIM 3 ERAs; PDA(?); PBC(?) UN Integrated Mission in Matoto
UN SC Resolution 2345 on Matoto
Ceasefire monitoring, Elections, Judicial Reform, Human Rights monitoring/protection
Phase-out in 2010?
DSRSG/RC/HC
RC Office (3 staff, 1 field)
OCHA Presence
15 intl, 40 natl, 5 field offices
Consolidation envisioned; handover to RC Office
3 ERAs; PDA(?); PBC(?)

16. UNCT 12 Resident Agencies, 3 Non-Resident
Recent humanitarian focus (+/- $360m)
Recovery/Development Programmes
$50m annually
Task Forces on some issues, but not all active
2001 UNDAF… but crisis in 2005
Most agencies develop bilaterally w/ donors
Current Programme tools: CAP and annual agency programme documents

17. International Actors World Bank Donors Coordination
Critical of UN lack of strategic clarity, too strict a focus on humanitarian response
Support move towards PRSP
Donors
Have supported UN humanitarian role; moving towards development
Some concerns (EU) about understanding conflict causes better
EU, France, USAID, plus several others
Coordination
Donor forum in place… primarily WB, EU, UN

18. Political Context for Recovery
Government
We are no longer a crisis country
Reduce the CAP - hurts our image
Donors are biased for Kizu - pressuring govt by withholding development programmes
Kizu
Wants continued focus on humanitarian, w/ targeted recovery
Can’t engage in development planning until revenue-sharing / oil resource control issues are resolved.

19. Socio-Economic, Humanitarian and Security Situation
Economic Sectors
Oil, Subsistence Agriculture, Tourism Potential(?)
Low Human Development
13.5m people (1999 census)
160 of 177 on Human Development Index; 63% below $2/day
Great disparities across regions
Humanitarian Needs
90,000 IDPs; human rights / GBV concerns
Particularly acute in Kizu
Security Threats
Small arms proliferation
Increasing violent crime in Kizu, reduced access to vulnerable populations

20. Initiating the Planning Process
At your tables (45 min – 1 flip-chart page):
Timing: What kinds of criteria can / should be used to determine if the timing is right to initiate a post-crisis planning process?
Integration: How would a UNCT strategic plan be linked with Mission planning? What role / purpose could the ISF play? What coordination challenges can you anticipate?
Parameters: What are the critical parameters (e.g., timing, scope) to define and agree on within the UNCT, with the Mission, and with key partners, in order to start the planning process?

21. Initiating Post-Crisis Planning
Roles of the Strategic Planner
Mapping and Tracking Overall Planning Context (Natl, Intl, Agency)
Identifying potential entry points
Framing the Right Questions
Timing, Rationales, Parameters, Consultations, Political
Working w/ RC to identify who needs to be involved in addressing different questions
Facilitate the Process of Engagement

22. Initiating the Planning Process
Initiating Planning in Practice:
Lebanon

23. Day 1: Wrap-Up Homework Assignment:
Case Reading; Comparative Advantage Profiles of UNCT Agencies

24. Day 2: Recap / Overview
Post-Crisis Planning Tools: PCNA, Strategic Assessment

25. Matoto: Assessing Post-Crisis Needs
UNCT:
Has decided to develop recovery framework
Grounded in thorough analysis/understanding of country’s needs
Prime Minister
Concerned that full-blown needs assessment will delay PRSP
Sufficient studies already exist
Certain issues, such as SSR, are off-limits
Ministries concerned about including ‘capacity assessments’ - fear of losing control of resources and project implementation

26. Update (2) … Kizu: WB/Donors: Support in-depth needs assessment
Support special focus on Kizu as separate exercise, due to specific regional concerns
WB/Donors:
Differences over process, competing priorities anticipated based on part 1 of case

27. Assessing Post-Crisis Needs
At your tables (25 min – 1 flip-chart page)
Concerns: How should the UN respond to the concerns of key governmental, political and/or other stakeholders about the assessment?
Parameters: Recognizing that you would need more information to give a definitive answer: What are some key parameters you would suggest for the needs assessment in Matoto?
Linkages: What are the key links to establish between this needs assessment and other related existing or upcoming processes (security, political, etc)?

28. Assessing Post-Crisis Needs
Roles of the Strategic Planner:
Frame the Issues / Questions
Scope, Consultations, Parameters
Flag Potential Political Considerations
Identify Potential Options
Design Effective Stakeholder Strategy
Coordinate/Manage the Process
w/ Reference to capacity, opportunities to delegate
Overall: Ensure that sound analysis underpins the strategic planning effort; and that analysis is shared w/ relevant key actors.

29. Initiating the Planning Process
Key factors to consider
State of the conflict: assuming a peace agreement in place, is there a level of security and stability across substantial portions of the country that would allow recovery and institution-building?
Alignment of key actors: is the government willing to participate in planning, and does it have capacity to do so? Are donors and international political actors supportive? Is the UN system (mission and UNCT, HQ counterparts) in agreement on the need to begin planning?
Planning frameworks and tools: is there agreement between UNCT and Mission on a coordinated and integrated approach to planning—including links to gov’t planning? On the methods and tools to be used? Is there sufficient UN planning capacity in place?

30. Assessing Post-Crisis Needs
Assessing Post-Crisis Needs in Practice:
Somalia

31. Comparative Advantage
Mandate to act +
Capacity to act
Unique Niches for UN Actors
Only the UN can act in this area in this way
The UN has a unique contribution in this area
The UN is better positioned than other actors

32. Elements of Comparative Advantage…
Relationships with key partners
Access/Influence with key decision-makers
Legitimacy (e.g. from mandate, other)
Reputation/Track record
Field Presence/Infrastructure/Admin. & management
Financial Resources
Technical/Analytic Resources
Cost-Effective Delivery
Effective Programme Approaches / Methodologies
As compared with other actors who might play same/similar role…

33. Update from Matoto… Matoto Assessment Process (MAP)
‘Light’ Needs Assessment
Priorities from the MAP finalization workshop
Equal and affordable access to quality social services, focus on health and primary education, across the territory
Environmental degradation, through transparent and efficient management of natural resources and rehabilitation of infrastructure
Core state functions and capacities, national cohesion, unity, citizen participation
Achieve pro-poor economic growth, youth employment generation, financial management

34. Update from Matoto (2)…
Stakeholders welcomed renewed emphasis on access to social services and employment
Expansion of Recovery Plan
Certain issues, such as SSR and reconciliation, out
Consequence of achieving results in these priority areas
Kizu
Refused to endorse final report; didn’t treat Kizu separately
UNCT ready to move ahead with addressing these priorities
DSRSG/RC/HC: Asked each agency to prepare statement of comparative advantage.

35. Working Groups: Part 3 At your tables (25 min – 1 flip-chart page):
Challenges: What kinds of obstacles / challenges do you anticipate in this phase of assessing comparative advantage?
Methodologies: What else would you want to know to inform the comparative advantage analysis before developing UN strategies, and how might you find out? (i.e., what methodologies might you use)?
Integration: What opportunities might exist for agency mandates and capacities to either conflict with or complement Mission mandates and capacities? What role(s) can/should the planners from both the Mission and the UNCT play in this phase of comparative advantage analysis?

36. Engaging Stakeholders
A Spectrum of Options
- information-sharing
- joint fact-finding
- dialogue
- negotiation
- advocacy
- consultation
- consensus building
- joint decision making
© CBI 2006

37. The Consensus Building Option
Decision making processes in which groups…
Seek representation of all affected stakeholders
Jointly clarify facts and issues among all stakeholders
Gain a shared understanding of each other’s underlying interests and of the political, social, economic, institutional and environmental issues at stake
Jointly develop options that are more creative and widely supported than the initial proposals of any one stakeholder
Seek agreements that satisfy everyone’s primary interests
© CBI 2006

38. Matoto: Stakeholder Support
Proposed UNCT Strategies:
National capacities to provide basic services to vulnerable populations are strengthened including through pro-poor allocation of budgetary resources
Livelihood opportunities are increased, through public works, small scale income generating activities and environmental rehabilitation
The country’s human rights framework is aligned with international standards and monitoring systems are established, leading to a reduction of human rights violations.
Citizens’ participation and engagement in public affairs are strengthened, and the design and implementation of national policies reflect the concerns and needs of all segments of the population

39. Matoto: Stakeholder Support
At your tables:
How would you go about building broader stakeholder support for the key strategic results developed by the UNCT?
What kind of process would you propose and design? How would you frame the purpose of the process? Who would you want to consult with?
What is the role of the strategic planner in this phase of building stakeholder support?

40. The Mutual Gains Approach
© CBI 2006

41. Matoto: Part 5 – Stakeholder Engagement
As the Strategic Planner, you have invited key stakeholders to discuss the UN post-crisis strategy.
Stakeholders include:
Mission
Central Government
Kizu Authorities
World Bank
Each has expressed initial feedback on the proposed strategy.
General Instructions: Information common to everyone
Confidential Instructions: Private information about your role.

42. Matoto: Part 5 – Stakeholder Engagement
The meeting will begin in 15 minutes and last for 60 minutes
Use the next 15 minutes to prepare for the meeting.
For those playing the role of Strategic Planner, consider your goals / purpose of the meeting, and how you plan to use the 60 minutes of the meeting.

43. Results-Based Management (RBM)

44. Skills, Competencies and Support
Given the task, context, roles and challenges of strategic planning in post-crisis settings:
What are the critical skills and/or competencies required?
What kinds of support would be helpful?
If you had 1 hour per week, 1 week per quarter, 1 month in a year: What would be the highest value professional development opportunities?