Country-led approaches to poverty reduction
Definition
‘Country led approaches’ are where the partner country (including government and civil society) takes the lead in formulating policies for its own development, and donors support this.
Why is it important?
- Evidence suggests that countries make most progress towards poverty reduction where their own governments are strongly committed to reducing poverty and have a strong national poverty reduction plan. Policy reform that is led by donors without strong country ownership is unlikely to be sustained by partners in the long term. Isolated projects outside national processes and systems rarely have a long-term systemic impact.
- The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) alignment approach presents an important means of furthering country led development, as it aims to align development funds behind long-term nationally developed plans for poverty reduction.
DFID/UK position
- DFID is strongly supportive of country-led approaches.
- DFID does not equate country ownership with government ownership. We believe that civil society, including poor people, should also have a voice and stake in their development, and that governments should be accountable to them.
International perspectives
- Most development agencies see poverty reduction strategies (PRSs) as the process for furthering country led development, although improvements are needed. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) boards no longer require PRSs to be approved by their boards before providing funds. This sends an important signal that country ownership is key.
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
Working
Party on Aid Effectiveness and Donor Practices facilitated theParis
Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, which sets out country-led
approaches as key for good development. This was signed by nearly 100
donors, developing countries and international organisations. DFID was an
active player in this process. - Several developing countries have spoken in favour of country-led approaches. The following quotation is from President Mkapa of the United Republic of Tanzania, November 2004:"We in the developing countries must own the development agenda, and our partners have to align their support to our agenda, our priorities and the sequencing we have set for ourselves. We have learnt to come to terms with the reality that development is a process and that it can only be sustained if it is owned and led by the targeted population. Development cannot be imposed it can only be facilitated. It requires ownership, participation and empowerment, not harangues and dictates".
Issues to be addressed
There are four main tensions in moving forward with country led approaches to development.
- Donor corporate agendas versus country led development. Donors have goals they wish to achieve (in DFID’s case, poverty reduction), policies they think will best achieve this, and spending targets to be met. These may not entirely match the partner country’s priority policies, sectors and timetables.
- Spending more money. Donors have agreed to a substantial increase in funding for developing countries (the European Union has agreed to give an additional US$40 billion per year by 2010). There will be pressure to make sure these additional resources are spent at a faster rate in a way that effectively targets poverty. The danger is that, with increased spending pressure, donors will repeat earlier mistakes and write poverty reduction strategies on behalf of partner countries, simply requiring governments to approve them. 'We believe in policy ownership and here are some policies we want you to own'.
- Country-led development in different contexts. Given that DFID works across a whole spectrum of countries from fragile states through to non-aid dependent countries, how can we work to support country led development in all contexts and how can we ensure this delivers results?
- How do we ensure that all our behaviour supports country led development? Donors need to change the way they use aid instruments, particularly technical cooperation and global funds and partnerships, to ensure country ownership. This includes using partner countries' systems to identify and prioritise needs, and to monitor aid impact.
Further information
Last updated: 6 February 2006
