Common Country Assessment (CCA) - ECSS | Eritrean Center for ...

Governance (cont’d)
Causality analysis
• The root cause is the pressing
challenge of balancing security
(border stalemate) and
development needs in the face
of limited resources.
• Capacities are limited for a
more accountable and efficient
public administration and full
decentralization.
Capacity gaps and key challenges
Lack of requisite capacity - Impacting all sectors, including:
• Implementation of sound economic policies
• Building and maintaining infrastructure; ensuring efficient
administration of justice.
• Providing a more favorable climate for private investment; collecting,
analyzing and disseminating socio-economic data.
Demographics
• Public administrators are aging and, until recently, the lack of an
established pension scheme created a disincentive for retirement. The
new scheme lacks seed capital to pay those retiring in the short term.
• Freeze on public sector pay since 1997: real wages and other
incentives have fallen drastically.
• The education and training system has not produced the requisite
numbers and categories of skilled people needed by the public and
private sectors as fast as had been expected, creating large the public
and private sector skill gaps.
Administrative decentralization
• Despite the policy in place and progress made, the severe shortage of
skilled labour has caused a slower pace of decentralization.
Private sector and civil society
• In the absence of a conducive, secure climate, the track of
implementing long-term objectives of making the private sector the
engine of economic growth has been de-railed. (Refer to section on
economic growth and development for details). The important
contributions of non-governmental organizations and civil society
organizations during the recent war and drought-related emergencies
are well known.
Potential areas for UN system cooperation
Strengthen capacities of national institutions
• Augment an efficient and effective civil service.
• Develop and support implementation of legal and regulatory frameworks to
embody international conventions that Eritrea has acceded to, as well as to
ratify others.
• Assist the government in the on-going implementation of the
decentralization policy.
• Assist in the establishment of a Juvenile Justice system, strengthening
efficiency within the police and correctional services and enhancement of
gender equality.
Promote community participation in recovery and management of development
• Support social and economic empowerment of communities and
vulnerable groups to acquire skills and organizational capacity, with
training, increased information and literacy support, etc.
• Foster representation of the persons with disabilities, women, young
people, and displaced persons in the decision making structures of the
various institutions, especially building on the decentralization efforts.
• Prioritize pro-poor/gender-responsive budgeting approaches to ensure
continued commitment to protect the most vulnerable.
Support of reporting on MDGs and human right instruments’ progress
• Serve as a monitoring instrument both internally and for the world
community, with the recommendations of the various treaty bodies
providing norms and standards against which to review national policies
and results.
• Assist in bringing visibility to the international community’s own compliance
with commitments made towards supporting least developed countries and
post conflict democracies, in line with MDGs and the Monterrey
Consensus.