[27/August/2009] Translated by: Tawfiq Alnadhif
SANA'A, August 27 (Saba)-The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation revealed that the implementation of projects funded by loans and foreign aid faces a number of challenges and difficulties.
The most important one is the slowdown of the allocations procedures for the amounts some countries have pledged to support Yemen in London Donor Groups Meeting in 2006. These problems include also funding corporations and delaying or ignoring the decision making on the proposals submitted to them and delaying the signing of the funding agreements, until they pass over the effective date.
The Ministry said that the vital and productive sectors like agriculture and education need additional resources or allocations to cover the financial gap in funding their projects.
The report revealed the weak interaction and commitment of some donors with the principles of Paris Declaration on improving the effectiveness of donated aids.
It also said that the trends of some donors (traditional) incompatible with the priorities of the investment program of the plan which has a funding gap.
Because their allocations for new projects not included in the list of the 85 projects or for programs already agreed upon in previous years.
The Ministry noted the absence of representative offices of some of the donors in Yemen to facilitate and speed up the consultation and negotiation on the financial aspects, technical and operational management of projects which had been agreed upon. I also noted reduce in the amounts to cover the financing gap of the pledged amounts and proclaimed at the London conference.
Report showed that the total allocations reached at the end of February 2009 about US $ 4.48 billion, 78% of total donor pledges and 71.1% of the total funding gap which worth US $ 6.3 billion.
The total amounts that have been agreed upon reached $ 41.9 million, 45.5% of the total allocations and 35.7% of total pledges, pointing out that "the efforts made in the framework of cooperation between the Government of Yemen, represented by the Ministry of Planning and the various donors resulted in the completion of the procedures for allocating pledges."
The report said that the size of donors' allocations for funding the projects of the investment program plan for economic and social development of the 3rd Poverty Alleviation 2006 - 2010 amounted to US $ 4.114 billion representing 72% of the total donor pledges.
The allocations were distributed on the sectors of infrastructure, which is the size of donor allocations to about US $ 1.958 billion 47.5% of the total allocations distributed on road sector of about US $ 816.4 million 41.7% of the total of infrastructure sector allocations, and about US $ 541.4 million for the electricity sector by 27.7%, while the transport sector allocations of about US $ 226 million of 11.5%, while the size of the allocations of water and sanitation reached about US $ 374.2 million of 19% .
The sector of human resources development and the social insurance come in the second level with US $ 1.628 billion 39.5% of the total allocations, allocated for education sector US $ 2.528 million of 32.4% of the total sector allocations, health sector of about US $ 6.492 million of 30.2%, and the social insurance of about US $ 7.607 million of 37.7%.
According to the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, the total size of allocations of productive sectors reached about US $ 8.270 million, representing approximately 6.6% of the total allocations, of which about US $ 3.229 million for the agriculture sector 84.6% of the total allocations of productive sectors, and about US $ 5.41 million for the fisheries sector of about 15.3%.
Moreover, the size of allocations of institutional reforms reached around US $ 3.257 million, representing approximately 6.3% of the total allocations.
Saba
