The OECD Development Assistance Committee Jeroen Verheul DAC ViceChair

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The OECD Development Assistance Committee
Jeroen VerheulDAC Vice-Chair

• Central European Initiative
• Joining Forces in Co-operation for Development
  Assistance
• Trieste, 10 June 2005

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Overview of the presentation

• The DAC as a Committee of Donors
• Main areas of work
• DAC Outreach

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The DAC as a Committee of Donors

• The DAC is a key forum of major bilateral donors
• Its Membership comprises 22 OECD countries, plus
  the Commission of the European Communities
• Together, DAC Members account for over 90 percent
  of Official Development Assistance (ODA)
• The IMF, UNDP and the World Bank participate as
  permanent observers in the DAC
• Non-DAC OECD Members can participate in all
  meetings of the Committee and its subsidiary
  bodies

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The DAC as a Committee of Donors
MANDATE AND CENTRAL FUNCTIONS

• DAC Members work together to increase the
  effectiveness of their aid efforts in support of
  sustainable development
• The Committee prepares guidelines for development
  practitioners in capitals and in the field, which
  reflect common objectives concerning the conduct
  of Member aid programmes
• A further central role of the DAC is that of
  keeper and guardian of statistical ODA reporting,
  both of DAC and non-DAC donors.

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The DAC as a Committee of Donors
BASIC WORKING METHODS

• The DAC meets between once and twice per month,
  with representation of Members by permanent
  Delegates
• In addition, the DAC meets at the High Level
  (Ministerial) and at the Senior Level (Policy
  Head) each once per year
• The DAC has nine subsidiary bodies with a more
  narrow thematic/issue focus. These are

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The DAC as a Committee of Donors
Working Party on Statistics
Working Party on Aid Effectiveness and Donor
Practices
Network on Development Evaluation
Network on Gender Equality
DAC
Network on Environment and Development
Co-operation
Network on Poverty Reduction
Network on Governance
Network on Conflict, Peace and Development
Co-operation
Fragile States Group
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MAIN AREAS OF WORK

• Statistics
• Peer Reviews
• Aid Effectiveness
• Growth Poverty Reduction
• Policy Co-ordination
• Policy Coherence

Monitoring financial flows and their allocation
is a key aspect of the DAC's programme of work.
The main objectives are to 1. Collect and
publish comprehensive, and timely statistics of
official and private flows. 2. Promote their use,
notably through easier-to-use online access.
3. Improve their policy relevance, timeliness
and transparency. 4. Update reporting guidance to
maintain comparable statistics. 5. Support
the work on allocation of increased flows of ODA
and the changing patterns of development finance.
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MAIN AREAS OF WORK

• Statistics
• Peer Reviews
• Aid Effectiveness
• Growth Poverty Reduction
• Policy Co-ordination
• Policy Coherence

• Peer Reviews constitute a central and unique OECD
  activity.
• The DAC reviews aim at improving the individual
  and collective development co-operation efforts
  of members. The policies and efforts of
  individual members are examined approximately
  once every four years.
• Peer Reviews comprise a critical assessment of
• current issues surrounding the development
  co-operation efforts of the member concerned, and
  
• the implementation of major DAC policies,
  principles, and review operations in recipient
  countries.

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MAIN AREAS OF WORK

• Statistics
• Peer Reviews
• Aid Effectiveness
• Growth Poverty Reduction
• Policy Co-ordination
• Policy Coherence

Work in this area strives to increase the
effectiveness of aid, as a crucial compliment to
efforts to increase aid volume.  Partner
countries participate actively in all aspects of
the work. Key to this work is the
harmonisation of donor practices and their
alignment with country-owned poverty reduction
strategies, systems and processes. Country
ownership and leadership is central. The focus
is on dissemination and on monitoring the
implementation on the ground of agreed policies
and good practices. The tying status of aid is a
further key dimension of effective aid.
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MAIN AREAS OF WORK

• Statistics
• Peer Reviews
• Aid Effectiveness
• Growth Poverty Reduction
• Policy Co-ordination
• Policy Coherence

• Work in this area focuses on higher and more
  sustainable growth rates in which poor people
  participate and benefit.
• It covers areas such as
• Private sector development
• Agriculture
• Infrastructure
• Trade and Investment
• ICT for Development

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MAIN AREAS OF WORK

• Statistics
• Peer Reviews
• Aid Effectiveness
• Growth Poverty Reduction
• Policy Co-ordination
• Policy Coherence

• The need for co-ordinated policies and strategies
  to attain sustainable development has now been
  broadly recognised.
• The DAC provides forums of bilateral and
  multilateral donors that develops guidance to
  shape policy and operations, based on
  consultations, policy dialogue and information
  exchange, in areas including
• Governance and capacity development
• Conflict prevention
• Fragile states
• Environment
• Gender equality

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MAIN AREAS OF WORK

• Statistics
• Peer Reviews
• Aid Effectiveness
• Growth Poverty Reduction
• Policy Co-ordination
• Policy Coherence

• Work on policy coherence deals with a range of
  OECD Member policies which affect developing
  countries, sometimes significantly more than
  development policies as such. Current focus
• Trade-distorting aspects of agricultural support
• Ensuring trade liberalisation with trade-related
  TC/CB
• Medicines for emerging/neglected diseases
• Impacts of environmental policies
• Development dimensions of migration policies
• Mutually beneficial fisheries policies
• Impacts of OECD macroeconomic policies

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DAC OUTREACH

• The DAC formally endorsed a Partnership Approach
  to Development Co-operation in 1996
• DAC Outreach to non-DAC countries has two
  aspects
• Outreach to recipient/partner countries
• Outreach to non-DAC donors
• In engaging outreach partners, key objectives
  are
• to promote mutual learning and sharing of
  experience on best practices
• to enhance like-mindedness, mutual understanding
  and receptiveness
• to make policy-practice products more relevant
  and globally acceptable through the participation
  of partners in their design and implementation

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DAC OUTREACH
APPLYING THE PARTNERSHIP APPROACH

• Aid Effectiveness piloting a true partnership
  approach in development co-operation through the
  work on Harmonisation and Alignment
• Paris High Level Forum and Paris Declaration,
  March 2005 setting an ambitious agenda to keep
  momentum for a highly successful approach
• Other DAC subsidiary bodies are likely to explore
  opportunities for closer co-operation with
  non-DAC countries
• After an initial focus on partner countries, the
  DAC now seeks increasing collaboration of non-DAC
  donors

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DAC OUTREACH
ENGAGING NON-DAC DONORS

• Contacts with non-DAC Donors go back as far as
  the 1970s, but ceased in the mid-1990s due to
  budgetary constraints
• Encouraged by increasing activity of
  (re-)emerging donors, the DAC decided in 2004 to
  revive the dialogue
• The DAC has developed a strategy for the
  pro-active engagement of non-DAC donors over the
  next years
• The strategy differentiates between different
  types of non-DAC donors and acknowledges the
  specific situation/needs of non-DAC EU donors

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DAC OUTREACH
TAKING UP THE DIALOGUE

• OECD/UNDP Forum on Partnership for More Effective
  Development Co-operation, on 1-2 February 2005
• Targeted essentially towards non-DAC donors
  outside Europe, participation from 14 non-OECD
  donors
• Joint Chairs Statement acknowledges strong
  demand to continue dialogue, and lists areas of
  particular interest

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DAC OUTREACH
THE FOCUS ON EUROPEAN DONORS

• European Donors are a focus group for DAC
  Outreach, which the
• DAC will seek to engage closely through
• Structured Briefing/Dialogue
• Access to online documents database
• Future policy dialogue meetings
• Observership in individual Peer Reviews
  (modalities still under discussion in the DAC)
• Informal HLM/SLM fringe meetings with non-DAC
  OECD, possibly extended to other EU donors

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THANK YOU