Aid Effectiveness in Fragile States
DAC Principles
NZAID, along with other OECD DAC Development Ministers and Heads of Agencies,
endorsed a Policy Commitment (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/48/38293448.pdf) and
set of Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and situations (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/48/38293448.pdf) at the 2007 OECD DAC High Level Meeting.
Originally drafted at the January 2005 Senior Level Forum (http://www.oecd.org/document/30/0,3343,en_2649_33693550_33964254_1_1_1_1,00.html) on Development Effectiveness in Fragile States, these Principles reflect a growing consensus that fragile states & situations require responses that are different from better performing countries. These principles were “piloted” by donors in a number of fragile states, including by New Zealand and Australia in Solomon Islands. The Principles recognise that:
- Fragile states confront particularly severe development challenges such as weak governance, limited administrative capacity, chronic humanitarian crisis, persistent social tensions, violence or the legacy of civil war.
- A durable exit from poverty and insecurity for the world’s most fragile states will need to be driven by their own leadership and people.
- Although international engagement will not by itself put an end to state fragility, the adoption of the shared principles can help maximize the positive impact of engagement and minimise unintentional harm.
The long-term vision for international engagement in fragile states is to help national reformers build legitimate, effective and resilient state institutions. Progress towards this goal requires joined-up and coherent action within and among governments and organisations. The Principles, therefore, emphasise the need to:
- Take context as the starting point
- Ensure all activities do no harm
- Focus on state-building as the central objective
- Prioritise prevention
- Recognise the links between, political, security and development objectives
- Promote non discrimination as a basis for inclusive and stable societies
- Align with local priorities in different ways in different contexts
- Agree on practical co-ordination mechanisms between international actors
- Act fast…but stay engaged long enough to give success a chance
- Avoid pockets of exclusion (“aid orphans”)
The Principles provide an important supplement to the Paris Declaration by reinforcing its messages on alignment and harmonization, providing further guidance on applying these principles in fragile situations and by extending the framework for aid effectiveness to encompass, conflict sensitive aid, whole of government approaches, and policy coherence in the political, security, and development nexus.
Ongoing work of the DAC’s Fragile State Group (soon to be amalgamated with another network to become the DAC Network on Conflict & Fragility) aims to offer more operational guidance consistent with the Principles in order to sharpen donor strategies and programmes in fragile states. Work completed or underway by this group includes: whole-of-government engagement, state-building, service delivery, security sector reform, etc. The Principles are also being used in DAC Peer Reviews (http://www.oecd.org/department/0,3355,en_2649_34603_1_1_1_1_1,00.html) to assess donor engagement in fragile states.
The Principles aim to complement and inform the commitments set out in the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness which notes the need to adapt and apply aid effectiveness principles to differing country situations, particularly fragile states.