Discussions of development cooperation

Ownership - Direct support to the poor - European development policies

Three new Working Papers written for an issue of the Danish-language journal, Den Ny Verden, on the future of development cooperation, take up significant aspects of current and future development policies.

The Historical Development of the Donor-Recipient Relationship affects Ownership

In some countries, donors have over the years become so entangled in national policy-making that achievement of local ownership of development cooperation seems an illusion. In others, governments have been able to control this. Lindsay Whitfield argues that the historical development of the relationship between donor and recipient countries constitute the critical context in which current concerns with alignment and ownership need to be understood. She explores this on the basis of case studies of eight African countries.

No Magic Bullets: Institutional Development or Direct Support to the Poor

Success with direct support to the poor is highly dependent on the particular context in which it is implemented. Cash Transfer Programmes, handing over funds directly to poor households – typically on certain conditions, such as school attendance of the children – have the potential of creating demand for institutional change from below. In this way consensus that development cooperation should first of all seek to create an enabling institutional environment for poverty reduction has been challenged. But there are no magic bullets. Neil Webster takes a look at the various initiatives.

The Future of European Development Cooperation – Need for Strengthened Coordination

How EU policy for global development will look in the future depends on how the organisation manages two key challenges: The changing political dynamics within an enlarged EU with a diverse set of preferences – and the evolving external environment characterized by emphasis on global public goods and by the multiplication of global development players. These challenges put pressure on the existing European development consensus, but also offer an impetus for strengthened coordination, argue Sven Grimm and Erik Lundsgaarde.

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