Image above: The four operational departments of the SDC Transcript Which goals for global development post-2015 are important for Switzerland? Switzerland is likely to promote as stand-alone goals: agenda for equality, health, water as well as peace and security. We also try to ensure that issues like disaster risk reduction, sustainable consumption and production patterns are not lost on the way to a new set of goals. What do you consider to be the challenges for negotiating a global agreement? Working under time pressure, being participatory as much as possible, in an agenda that is ...
Development news hardly ever presents success stories. Usually, we read about misery, need and the lack of progress. “Living Proof”, a new campaign website launched by the organisation ONE, focuses on showing “real stories of the incredible progress being achieved by some of the world’s poorest people”. The site gives access to various resources ranging from statistics to multimedia content, and is available in three languages. “Living Proof” is supported by the European Commission and the Gates Foundation who agreed this week to cooperate on agriculture and health issues.
The debate on development will be reframed over the coming years and practitioners, together with academia, are in search of a new development paradigm. A list of eight uncertainties and ten recommendations was put together by Alex Evans from the Center on International Cooperation, and similar issues have recently been discussed in a workshop held by the IFRC together with CIGI in Geneva. When looking into the future of development, ODI’s Jonathan Glennie calls for global equity and tells that we need to “want less, use less, share more”, while Oxfam’s Duncan Green stresses that ...
A new ECDPM Discussion Paper analyses how research organisations can support broad-based ownership of policies in developing countries. It examines in which way international support can effectively assist them and provides recommendations. The influence of a research organisation’s work depend to a large extent on the political context and governance system in which it operates say the authors who also argue that deepening discussions on policies in Southern countries is not only a key requirement for effective aid, but is also a legitimate development outcome in its own right. The paper was drafted for the ...
The new ECDPM Discussion Paper “Fostering democratic ownership. A capacity development perspective” reflects on how external partners can enhance their support for democratic ownership in development cooperation. The authors, Volker Hauck and Tony Land, regard the processes associated with the emergence of democratic ownership as essentially endogenous capacity development processes. Thus, they argue that capacity development insights relating to emergence and change management, founded within complexity and systems thinking, offer avenues for external change agents to more effectively supporting democratic ownership.
An ECDPM Briefing Note released this week entitled “Where is the Paris Agenda heading? Changing relations in Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique” by Bertil Odén and Lennart Wohlgemuth analyses how the Paris Agenda on Aid Effectiveness was translated into action in three of the most engaged countries in Africa. The authors argue that inherent contradictions between partners need to be dealt with in order to achieve aid effectiveness objectives. On the donor side, these include the increasing concentration on short-term quantifiable results, the tendency for micro-management and over-optimistic expectations on the speed of agreed reforms. And ...
This World Bank Economic Premise note by Milan Brahmbhatt and Otaviano Canuto considers the growing convergence between human rights and development thinking along several dimensions, particularly on social and economic rights. It also examines the continuing areas of difference and of outstanding or open questions. The authors then ask what the dialogue between human rights and development can contribute to furthering progress on the MDGs.
This report by consultant Penny Davies commissioned by the OECD Development Assistance Committee for its Working Party on Aid Effectiveness considers the role of the private sector in development and in aid processes in particular and offers suggestions for ways forward directed at different stakeholders. It examines partner country priorities and challenges in ensuring a positive contribution of the private sector to national development plans and the role donors play in supporting positive private sector contributions. The report also explores what makes public-private partnerships work effectively. It also addresses the issues of how to measure ...
This study by Sven Grimm and colleagues from the German Development Institute shows that Rwanda’s government, despite its aid dependency, demonstrates strong ownership of its development agenda. The government, however, has clearly not been successful in integrating China into its aid coordination architecture according to the authors. The study argues that the lack of integration of non-OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) development partners – not least so China – is a major challenge to the country’s aid architecture if the leverage over DAC partners is to be maintained. Recommendations are made to each of the ...
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell set out the UK government’s plans to reconfigure its international development policy in a speech at Chatham House on 15 February. One of the themes of the new narrative arising from the root and branch review of development cooperation (the conclusions of which will be announced at the end of February) is a focus on results. Resources will be concentrated where the UK believes it can make the greatest impact for the world’s poorest people. Aid will be but one of the tools which will also include brokering political support ...
