Developing a Programme Strategy
Annex 3: Joint Programme Strategies
There are circumstances where it is appropriate to develop joint Programme Strategies with other donors. These circumstances include where there is a delegated cooperation agreement with another donor(s) or where there are like-minded donors willing to cooperate to achieve development results in similar areas. The benefits of a joint strategy are strong harmonisation with the other donor(s) and lower long term transaction costs for the Partner. Below are some points you might like to consider if thinking about a joint Programme Strategy.
Developing a joint Country Programme Strategy – how to decide?
You should take the following factors into account when deciding if a joint Country Programme Strategy is the right option. Ideally, most or all these factors will be in play:
- high level of current joint programming, talks or other harmonisation with prospective donor/s
- commonality of values
- high levels of trust and collaboration
- willingness of partner government to embrace a joint approach
- solid partner framework (National Development Plan) to align with
- reasonable alignment between donor modalities, approaches and systems (or at least a willingness to embrace a common approach).
Issues to take account of when developing a joint country strategy
- Start the process by elaborating a set of joint harmonisation principles.
- Consider coverage of sectors – ‘joint’ doesn’t mean that the involved donors work in all the same sectors; but it sets out the division of labour between the donors (what’s shared, what’s separate).
- When using existing background analyses, ensure there is a joint moderation process so that the analyses are agreed as appropriate for the joint country programme exercise.
- Ensure strong alignment to partner’s National Development Plan or equivalent documents.
- Ensure the exercise is truly joint i.e. all partners agreed on TOR, strategy team composition, share the writing of strategy (or at least agree a suitable writer as part of team). The partner government needs to view this as a highly collaborative, open exercise – not one where the donors are ‘ganging up’ and it is sidelined.
- Understand that there is potential for a joint country strategy to reduce the NZ whole-of-government engagement.
- Understand that with a consultation process that straddles three (or more) sets of stakeholders, each partner may need to ‘let go’ on certain areas, and may not be able to have all their stakeholder feedback reflected in the final product.