Since the 1990s, policies of
Agencies for International Cooperation move more and more
towards Programme Based Approaches (PBAs). The purpose is to
avoid fragmentation of development assistance, to achieve
enhanced coordination of financial means and better
cooperation. Also the ownership of development programmes of
recipient countries and the support of partners' institutional
development are strongly emphasized, which could not be
achieved to a satisfactory degree by the project-based
approach:
"[A] multiplicity of donor organizations pursued "their
own" interventions, paying insufficient attention to intra- and
intersectoral issues and to recipient country needs and
preferences."[1] This
does not mean that there is no support for projects anymore, but
rather the embedding of the project approach has changed: "It
is the notion of who is leading and who 'owns' the development
agenda […]".[2]
The most important approach of programme-based assistance is the
Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp). It is characterized by
various forms and definitions according to the multiple agencies
involved in international cooperation, which also name these
approaches in slightly different ways. Individual interpretations by
the various donors are mentioned in the respective sections of this
guide.
A Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) is
"[…] a process in which funding for the sector - whether
internal or from donors - supports a single policy and expenditure
programme, under government leadership, and adopting common
approaches across the sector. It is generally accompanied by efforts
to strengthen government procedures for disbursement and
accountability. A SWAp should ideally involve broad stakeholder
consultation in the design of a coherent sector programme at micro,
meso and macro levels, and strong co-ordination among donors and
between donors and government." [3]
The Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp)
also provides room for funding of projects, where the projects
are entirely part of the policy and budget.
Most Agencies for International Cooperation favour programme-based
approaches. They are in different stages of adaptation of their
respective policies to this modality though.
Agencies for International Cooperation vary in the interpretation of the
concept of "ownership". The definitions of
"ownership" ranges from (central) government ownership,
over the inclusion of local government and/or key elements of civil
society to "everyone involved in a given sector". [4]
Together with the idea of SWAp-like approaches goes the
concept of Basket Funding (BF), which means joint funding by
several donors. It may or it may not be provided in the form
of budget support to the recipient government. The budget
support (or cash transfer) in turn can be provided either as
support to the budget as a whole or as part of a programme or
sector.
Prerequisites for the receipt
of development assistance under the new aid paradigm are
national policy frameworks of good governance and
decentralization that have been implemented or are in the
process of being implemented.
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