Ministry for Foreign Affairs Governance in the Context of Aid Effectiveness

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Ministry for Foreign AffairsGovernance in the
Context of Aid Effectiveness

• Advanced Academic Update, University of
  Maastricht, January 2-22, 2009
• Laura Torvinen

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Governance as the new paradigm in development
policy

• Shift in development policies since the early
  1990s
• reflecting
• End of the Cold War with changing political
  context of international development cooperation
  
• Shift towards market-oriented economic policies
  in industrialised countries which then reflected
  also in donor aid policies
• Research on the impact of aid ...aid is
  effective in countries with good policy
  environment... (Burnside Dollar 2000)
• Emphasis on country ownership

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Governance as the new paradigm in development
policy

• Enhanced emphasis on aid effectiveness reflecting
  e.g.
• Millennium Development Goals
• Monterrey Conference
• Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (followed
  by Accra Agenda for Action)
• "...governance and commitment to governance are
  now regarded as the central concepts which
  account for all, or almost all of the performance
  of aid..." (Riddell 2007 370)

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Policy Relevance of the Governance Assessments

• Choice of partner countries
• Choice of aid modalities
• Policy dialogue between donors and partner
  countries
• Country-specific allocation of aid
• Partner country ownership
• Donor support to governance reforms

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Conceptual and Methodological Challenges of
Governance Assessments

• Increasing use of governance assessments to
  improve aid
• effectiveness, yet
• No coherent body of governance theory
• Multitude of conceptual and methodological
  approaches based on different theoretical
  frameworks and competing definitions of
  governance
• Increasing number of tools for assessing
  governance

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Governance Assessments The Case of Mozambique

• Setting the scene
• Successful post-conflict country - over 15 years
  of peace after a prolonged war
• High and sustained economic growth and stable
  political situation, yet among the poorest
  countries in the world
• Donor darling with significant flow of external
  assistance
• Quality of governance above average (SSA), yet,
  perceptions of governance at country level mixed

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Governance Assessments by the 'top ten'
donorsGeneral Governance Assessments

• Multilateral agencies
• World Bank CPIA, WGI, Governance and
  Anti-Corruption
• European Commission Governance Profile
• African Dev. Fund Country Governance profile
• Bilateral agencies
• USA MCC, Democracy and Governance Strategic
  Assessment
• UK Country Governance Assessment, Drivers of
  Change
• Sweden Power Analysis
• The Netherlands Strategic Governance and
  Corruption Analysis
• Joint Assessments
• GBS Partners PAF

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Governance Assessments by the 'top ten'
donorsThematic Governance Assessments

• Multilateral Agencies
• IMF Report on Standards and Codes (ROSC)
• World Bank Country Procurement Assessment report
  (CPAR)
• European Union Human Rights Fact Sheet
• Bilateral Agencies
• USA Conflict Assessment Framework
• UK Strategic Conflict Assessment
• The Netherlands Stability Assessment Framework
• Joint Assessments
• Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability
  (PEFA)

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Source www.worldbank.org
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Source www.worldbank.org/wbi