UNSIA Newsletter Issue 1, December 1997
Sector Investment Programmes
United Nations agencies under the SIA have agreed to provide sector-wide support to country commitments in the three major areas using sector investment programmes (SIPs): basic education, basic health, and household water supplies. Sector investment programmes provide a common operational and policy framework for multilateral, UN and bilateral donor support.
Under the SIA, partners have also agreed that countries in Africa are in various stages of readiness to plan and implement sector programmes. Four country typologies are recognized:
Group 1. Countries that have developed or are successfully developing full SIPs, either by themselves or in partnership with their external partners, and which have the capacity to implement their strategies. For these countries, the World Bank will take the lead to actively mobilize external support (particularly through its Special Programme of Action (SPA) framework).
Group 2. Countries with good SIP formulation and implementation capacity, but with key outstanding policy issues that need to be resolved. For these countries, the SIA will assist through policy dialogue to resolve outstanding policy issues.
Group 3. Countries with weaknesses in institutional and human capacity to formulate and implement SIPs. For these countries, assistance would support capacity building activities to enable them to prepare and execute sustainable policies and programmes.
Group 4. Countries where there is civil strife, and where external assistance is limited and largely humanitarian rather than development oriented. Here, the lead agencies will work with NGOs and others to provide urgently needed support and to undertake Group 3 activities as soon as local conditions permit.