Studies, Articles & Reports

Here you'll find information on studies, articles and reports for aid effectiveness, harmonization and alignment on local governance and decentralization.

Please klick for details on the link name in the list below.

• "Efffective Aid through Municipal Contracting" - Working Paper by Mirco Goudrian 2010
  This document aims to provide a better understanding of the Municipal Contract model as an aid modality for supporting local governments. This includes an overview of results and lessons learned with the actual implementation of Municipal Contracts in a selection of countries and a critical analysis of the model in terms of strengths and weaknesses.
• Giving local government a more central place in development. An examination of donor support for decentralisation by Jan Willem Nibbering and Rolf Swart (2009)
  Donors should play a prominent role in bridging the gap between the actors involved and creating widespread support for decentralisation and local governance policy.
• Impact of the financial crisis on decentralisation processes - Literature Review by Karem Roitman (2009)
  Through a broad literature review, this Review contributes to the identification of possible entry points to mitigate the effects of the current global financial crisis (GFC) while ensuring macro economic stability and proper functioning of public services.
• Guiding Principles for enhanced impact, usage and harmonisation by OECD (2009)
  An initial survey pointed to the risk of frequent duplication and overlap between donors’ governance assessment tools, as well as the need to improve practice with regard to greater reliance on partner country assessment processes. The survey also shed light on why, and how, donors make their own assessments and on the possibility of harmonising donor approaches to assessing governance.
• From Porto Alegre to Europe: Potentials and Limitations of Participatory Budgeting by Yves Sintomer, Carsten Herzberg, Anja Röcke (2008)
  Participatory budgets have been one of the most successful participatory instruments of the past 15 years. Ever since it was invented in Latin America, it spread over the entire globe.
• Is Political Analysis Changing Donor Behaviour? by Sue Unsworth (2008)
  Political analysis shows that political context and process is central to shaping the incentives of politicians and policymakers for or against progressive change. This directly challenges conventional donor approaches that assume the problems are primarily financial and technical, and that the political behaviour of their ‘partners’ can be influenced by ‘dialogue’ and conditionality.
• Southern non-dac actors in development cooperation by DIE (2008)
  Financing for Development Series: Southern Non-DAC Actors in Development Cooperation.
• Setting an agenda for collective action by OECD (2007)
  Policy paper and principles on anti-curruption.
• Harmonization and alignment by Eurodad and GMF (2008)
  Challenges and opportunities for U.S. and European donors post-Accra.
• Implementation of Paris Accra in Latin America by FRIDE (2009)
  Towards a regional Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Survey on monitoring the Paris declaration by OECD (2008)
  Making aid more effective by 2010.
• Organizational challenges for an effective aid architecture by Jörg Faust / Dirk Messner (2007)
  Traditional deficits, the Paris Agenda and beyond
• A Progress Report on Implementing the Paris Declaration by OECD (2008)
  This report is a mid-term review of progress towards these commitments, drawing on the 2008 Paris Declaration Monitoring Survey and the Evaluation Synthesis Report among many other sources.
• Accountability and policy dialogue by Charles Mutasa (2008)
  Aid has a critical role to play in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals in many developing countries, especially when it is deployed effectively in an accountable manner as part of a wider development strategy; it makes a lasting difference in helping people to lift themselves out of poverty. Of key importance to aid delivery and management has been the issues of accountability and policy dialogue.
• Decentralization in Client Countries An Evaluation of World Bank Support 1990–2007 by World Bank Independent Evaluation Group  (IEG)
  Decentralization shifts responsibility and accountability for the delivery of public services to subnational (state, provincial, district, or local) levels of government, aiming to help improve service delivery and local governance. Since the 1990s, the World Bank has devoted an increasing share of its financing to support its client countries’ decentralization efforts. To assess the results of such interventions, IEG reviewed Bank support for decentralization in 20 developing countries between fiscal years 1990 and 2007.
• Supporting Decentralisation and Local Governance in Third Countries by European Commission (2007)
  The European Commission (EC), much like other donor agencies, is providing growing levels of funds to support decentralisation and local governance in many parts of the world. Yet this is still a relatively new area of work for the European Commission. Not surprisingly, staff involved in direct or indirect support to decentralisation and local governance, struggle with many thorny ‘how to’ questions.
• Civil Society Perspectives Strengthening the Poverty Impact of the Paris Declaration: through Gender Equality, Human Rights and Social Exclusion by INTRAC 2007
  Although the Paris Declaration (PD) is essentially an agreement between donors and recipient governments, its core principles such as support for country ownership and managing for results provide possibilities for including a wider range of development actors – the civil society (CS) groups and NGOs, many of whom have been at the forefront of development  practice  for decades.
• Aid Effectiveness Overview of the Results 2006 Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration by OECD (2007)
  The Paris declaration on aid effectivesness defined a number of commitments on the part of donors and partner countries, and a set of indicators to measure progress towards 2010. Within the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness, the Joint Venture on Monitoring the Paris Declaration is responsible for the monitoring and follow-up of the Paris Declaration. This document is the Baseline Survey on Monitoring the Paris Declaration covering 34 partner countries with data from 60 donors.