In its latest review of PRSPs, the World Bank finds that 8 of the 62 recipient countries surveyed have “largely developed” operational development strategies, while most others have at least “taken action” in putting together such a strategy.
PRSPs help focus policies on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, but can a document drafted with donor participation – and subsequently assessed by donors for its quality – be truly “owned” by its drafters? “Ownership”, in this case, could just be a euphemism for developing countries’ adoption ofexternally-conceived policies.
Aid recipients still lack real choices between policy frameworks. Of the annual $1.3 billion in aid for development-related research, 94 per cent is spent on research in OECD countries themselves1. Donors, thus, remain dominant in the production of development knowledge.
Then there is conditionality. Experience shows that policy conditions fail to bring about reform, not least because donors are unable to enforce them properly. Moreover, linking aid to the adoption of policies clearly undermines ownership by stifling national debate about choices and by shifting governmental accountability towards donors rather than citizens.
The relationship between governments and citizens raises a further critical question: does country ownership imply government ownership?
Governments prefer the policy process to be centralized in national capitals, but recognize that aid is more effective when parliaments, local governments and civil society actors are engaged in the design of policies and monitoring their implementation. This recognition has implications for what we mean by “ownership” and extends it beyond national governments.
Political reality, however, means that local actors are still often sidestepped by national governments and donor agencies.
In this report it has been proposed to take several measures to enhance the ownership:
1. Attack the barriers to local knowledge production
2. Enforce local legal frameworks for participation
3. Improve monitoring mechanisms for ownership
4. Review approaches to conditionality
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Filed under: Beyond WECA
