DFID supported the government’s institutional and policy reform process within fisheries and IMM staff were assigned as short-term TA advisers to guide that process. The first stage of the work was a thorough institutional review of the institution followed by the implementation of a roadmap for change. Key elements of the SWAp included:
1) The development of an integrated policy, planning and review process (IPPR) where all policies, plans and review systems and actions were linked from the community to international obligations through national development plans – all were linked through nested logical frameworks that allowed vertical and horizontal interlinkages to be understood;
2) establishing a 10 year strategic planning framework (SPF) and process, a three year rolling plan process, annual planning at sector and sub-sector levels – these were driven by National Strategic Development Plan, the government’s political Rectangular Strategy and the NMDGs;
3) a common planning format and system for donor funded projects that linked into the SPF;
4) a common monthly, quarterly and annual reporting system that linked in the system adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture;
5) an M&E Unit and system that monitored progress against a hierarchy of indicators at activity, output, purpose and goal levels, that was linked to the wider Ministry M&E system, and that included a participatory policy impact assessment which fed village level responses back into policy making;
6) a sector-wide harmonization and alignment strategy to ensure improvements in aid delivery and convergence of donor and national policies, plans and systems – also including a strategy for harmonizing M&E approaches;
7) a sector-wide human resource management strategy including equal opportunities guidance, centralized TNA linked to longer-term goals, and a gender mainstreaming strategy linked to that of the Ministry of Agriculture;
8) a Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries for Cambodia which provided a common framework to harmonize the work of government, donors and the NGO sector;
9) a common financial mechanism to allow donor funding to the sector to be pooled, accounted for, audited and harmonized;
10) a common merit-based pay system enhance salaries which was linked to the delivery of indicators in the annual logframes for each sub-sectoral activity plan;
11) a common knowledge management system which placed the generation, sharing and use of knowledge at the centre of the policy and planning and made policy the key driver of research prioritization; and
12) a Technical Working Group on Fisheries which brought government, donors and NGOs together to share knowledge, experiences and lessons, to agree forward plans for the sector, and to ensure harmonization between sectors.