The OECD Development Centre

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The OECD Development Centre
41 Years at the Service of Development and OECD
to bring together the knowledge and
experience available in participating countries
to adapt it to the actual needs of countries or
regions in the process of economic development
and to place the results at the disposal of the
countries concerned.
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• The Development Centre was created as the result
  of a US initiative made at a meeting of the
  Development Advisory Group (DAG) in Tokyo in
  February 1961, a year after the creation of the
  DAC. Its mission - to synthesize knowledge and
  experience, to adapt it to developing countries
  needs and to put it at the disposal of those
  concerned - is still relevant today.

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DAC and DEV OECD(60)13 and C(62)144 (Final)
A Partnership for Progress
DAC Where major bilateral donors work together to
increase the effectiveness of their common
efforts to support sustainable development
Development Centre Provides analytical support
for development policy making
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• The Centre and DAC/DCD have co-operated from the
  outset in many joint undertakings.
• Each Unit recognises the complementarity of the
  other in the shared aim of bringing social and
  economic development to the poorer countries and
  helping to bring about their full participation
  in the global economy.

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The Centres Methods
1 - Forward-looking Policy Analysis
2 - Study of Long-Term Global Processes
3 - Capacity Building in Developing Countries
4 - Substantive Policy Dialogue
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• The tools at our disposal, especially the
  experience and knowledge available in the OECD,
  have equipped the Centre to approach development
  questions through four ways.
• The Centre has been and remains able to undertake
  forward-looking policy analysis.
• Lessons of the past are applied to the challenges
  of the future in an effort to understand
  long-term global processes better.
• Knowledge and experience, however, are not
  solutions in themselves without the capacity to
  use them effectively. Hence the need to work with
  developing countries in sharing reform and policy
  experiences.
• Finally, our work programme is not desk-based
  research. It is more demand than supply driven.
  It is the outcome of a substantive dialogue with
  our partners in both OECD and developing
  countries.

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A History of Responding to Changing Policy Needs

• 1962 -1972 Putting Development on the Agenda

• 1973 -1982 Bridging North South

• 1983 -1992 Addressing Interdependence
  Divergence

• 1993 -2002 Promoting Reform in a Global Economy

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• In each period of its history, the Centre has
  been called upon to respond to changing
  international circumstances and priorities. As
  needs have evolved, so has the Centres own
  focus. Guided by OECDs priorities and equipped
  with the Organisations own policy experience,
  the Centre has adapted its work programme in
  order to meet the policy challenges encountered
  by developing countries. Across the decades,
  priorities have shifted from putting development
  on the agenda, to bridging North-South cleavages,
  to addressing interdependence and divergence and
  to promoting sustainable reforms in the global
  economy.

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Highlights from the past
Forward looking policy analysis

• Industry and Trade in Some Developing Countries,
  Little, Scitovsky Scott (1970)
• Project Appraisal and Planning for Developing
  Countries, Little Mirrlees (1974)
• The Tying of Aid, Jepma (1991)
• Adjustment and Equity, Morrisson (1992)
• Towards Capital Account Convertibility, Fischer
  Reisen (1992)
• Trade Liberalisation What 's at Stake? Goldin
  van der Mensbrugghe (1992)
• The World in 2020 (1997) The Linkages Study
  (1995)
• The World Economy a Millennial Perspective,
  Maddison (2001)
• African Economic Outlook (2002 - )

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• One of the first products to put the Development
  Centre on the map was the work by Little,
  Scitovsky and Scott 33 years ago. This innovative
  work, based on hard research in a number of
  countries, was among the first to call into
  question the idea of import-substitution-led
  growth. It remains a standard text to this day
• .
• In 1992, three bodies of Centre work received
  particular attention. Policy Brief N5,
  Agricultural Trade Liberalisation Whats at
  Stake, was a ground-breaking study of the
  implications of agricultural trade liberalisation
  in the context of the Uruguay Round. It led to
  substantial progress on the issue and was widely
  quoted in national parliaments and international
  negotiations. Adjustment and Equity, took a
  dispassionate look at the effect of adjustment
  policies in developing countries. Towards
  Capital-Account Convertibility, cautioned against
  the hasty opening up of capital markets in
  developing countries that have weak
  regulatorysystems. This was well in advance of
  the financial crises in the mid and late 1990s.
• The World in 2020 and the Linkages studies were
  both undertaken for the OECD and have formed the
  basis for ongoing OECD reflection about
  relationships with the developing world.
• The phenomenal studies produced by Angus Maddison
  require no introduction. Both are fundamental
  texts and OECD best sellers.
• The African Economic Outlook, immediately
  established itself as an indispensable tool for
  monitoring and understanding African economies.
  It serves a number of different publics. It is a
  very useful instrument for statistical and
  economic policy capacity building in the
  framework of the NEPAD initiative.

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Highlights from the past
Substantive Policy Dialogue

• Paris (1990) Africa Leadership Forum
• China, Colombia, Chile, India, Mexico (1990s)
  Explanation and Adaptation of the GREEN
  Environmental Model
• South Africa (1993/94) Support for ANC Policy
  Design
• Côte dIvoire (1994) Reducing African Debt
  Possible Application of a Brady Plan to Africa
• India (1995) Economic Reform, Structural
  Adjustment and Competitiveness
• China (1995) Military Industries Conversion
• Brazil (1997) Fiscal Federalism
• Washington (1999) Fighting Corruption in
  Developing Countries and Emerging Economies the
  role of the private sector
• Paris (1989 2002) International Forums on
  Economic Perspectives with the Regional
  Development Banks

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• This is a list of some of the Development
  Centres contributions towards supporting
  capacity building and reform in developing
  countries. Some highlights
• In advance of international conferences on
  climate change, the Centre devised a model for
  measuring the effect of industrial policies on
  the environment and, importantly, shared this
  knowledge with developing countries. The model
  known as GREEN was then put freely at their
  disposal.
• We provided direct advice to the incoming ANC
  authorities in South Africa, helping them to
  devise policies that would help ensure stability
  and growth.
• In India, the Centre helped to raise awareness
  policy advice to the government and
  private-sector actors on how best to deal with
  and profit from economic reform.
• Our experts responded to invitations from China
  for help with their military conversion policies,
  thus contributing to a smooth transition from
  armaments to civilian production 3 million
  workers were involved.
• The Development Centre organised the 1999 meeting
  in Washington DC on "Fighting CorruptionThe Role
  of the Private Sector" in co-operation with USAID
  and corporate partners (namely PricewaterhouseCoop
  ers, CIPE and the MacArthur Foundation).
  Transparency International was among 12 other
  "Partner Organisations" involved in this meeting.
• Finally, the series of International Forums on
  International Economic Perspectives, which began
  in 1989, in partnership with the regional
  development banks, has provided an opportunity
  for policy makers, business people, journalists,
  academics and other specialists to meet and share
  their experience of regional economic challenges.

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Today
Towards Inclusive Globalisation

• OECDs Action Plan for a Shared Development
  Agenda PAC/COM/NEWS(2002)58

• Institutional restructuring for development

Development Cluster
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• At the dawn of the 21st century, priorities and
  capabilities have changed. Achieving the
  Millennium Development Goals, promoting
  sustainable development and securing adequate and
  effective financing for development have become
  shared objectives. The Organisations new
  strategic priorities now place development issues
  high on its policy agenda. The promotion of
  inclusive globalisation has become one of its
  major targets. In order to pursue these
  priorities effectively, the OECD has undertaken a
  major restructuring of its development-related
  activities.
• The creation of the Development Cluster forms
  part of this overall new approach. It is
  complemented by increased collaboration between
  the Cluster Units and other Directorates and aims
  at mainstreaming development concerns across OECD
  Committees.

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Our Context

• Proliferation of development research capacity in
  developing and OECD countries
• OECD Directorates increasing work on developing
  countries
• Enhanced OECD outreach to developing countries
  (CCNM)

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• Establishing the Centres new priorities required
  taking into account the following developments
• Research capacity has increased in both developed
  and developing countries over recent years.
• Across the House almost all Directorates have
  begun to work more intensively on development
  issues.
• The Organisation has developed moreover a very
  active outreach programme to developing
  countries, coordinated by CCNM.
• The Centre has had to reposition itself within
  the Organisation, and to identify its value-added
  to its stakeholders.

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2003 A New Centre
Institutional Changes

• From Advisory Board to Governing Board
• From President to Director

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• The changes at the Centre have not been cosmetic.
  Now a unit in OECDs Development Cluster, it has
  been integrated fully into the OECD. It has been
  restructured to resemble more an OECD
  Directorate. It now has a Governing Board
  composed of Member country Ambassadors. Unlike
  other committees, however, non-OECD members can
  become full-members of the Governing Board.
  Thus, today 24 countries, including India and
  Chile, are Governing Board members.
• Its integration has also meant that it is now
  managed by a Director, appointed by the
  Secretary-General, rather than a President
  elected by the Council. Thus restructuring has
  implied that the Centre now services more
  effectively the OECD in close collaboration with
  other units. It essentially functions as a
  Part I programme, even though it is included
  under Part II.

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A New Thrust

• Supporting the OECDs strategic priorities on
  development through substantive dialogue, policy
  analysis and synthesis, and capacity building in
  developing countries.
• ?
• Deepening developing countries
• partnerships with the OECD

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• Institutional restructuring is being complemented
  by the ongoing reform to our work programme. The
  major thrust of our work and activities is to
  support and, we might venture to say, help shape
  the OECDs strategic priorities on development.
  We can do that through engaging in relevant and
  topical policy analysis, undertaking syntheses of
  research output to support other Committees
  facilitating work, substantive and informal
  dialogue on current, forward- looking, or
  divisive policy issues and working with experts
  and state and non state-actors in developing
  countries to share experiences and learn from
  each other.
• In these ways we hope to contribute towards
  deepening developing countries partnerships with
  the OECD

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2003-2004 Work Programme Adaptive Capacity and
Inclusive Development
1- Market Access, Capacity Building
Competitiveness
2-Finance and Governance for Development
3-Social Institutions and Partnerships
4-African Economic Outlook
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• The Centres current work programme seeks to
  advance this overriding objective. The topics
  chosen reflect the priorities of the development
  community, including donors and aid agencies, as
  well as the expressed needs of developing
  countries themselves. Moreover, the programme is
  an integral part of the OECDs own programme of
  work and is executed in close collaboration with
  other Directorates.

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• Increased market access and raising supply-side
  capacities in developing countries are major
  policy challenges today. For the poorer
  countries, capacity building is of particular
  importance. The Centres analysis intends to
  clarify policy options both for the poor
  countries themselves and for OECD members. We are
  working on these topics with DAC/DCD, ECH, DAF,
  and ECO.
• Having established the MDGs, the international
  community now has to deal with financing their
  realisation. Clearly, old forms of financing
  will be inadequate. The Centres analysis looks
  at the options available in the international
  financial system that can be drawn upon.
• Attracting investment and private finance for
  developing countries, remains an abiding problem.
  Equally, the contribution of those flows to
  development and poverty alleviation is a
  priority. The Development Centre aims to evaluate
  the influence of governance issues on both sides
  of the equation, leading to policy
  recommendations for OECD and developing countries
  on how to overcome the governance deficit and
  enhance the development impact of investment.
  This work is done with DCD, DAF and GOV.
• The role of institutions is crucial in
  development. The Centres research looks at how
  much poverty reduction and improved participation
  can be expected from supporting the adaptation of
  existing institutions, often described as
  "traditional". Though we know that public/private
  dialogue is key to improving public policy
  making, the difficulty is how to make it work
  effectively in countries where public
  institutions are weak, the formal private sector
  underdeveloped and disorganised, and where many
  civil society organisations are captured by
  narrow private interests. Can we go beyond mere
  slogans when we talk about PPPs in the poorest
  countries? We are working with DAC/DCD, GOV, SAH,
  BIAC and TUAC on these topics.
• The African Economic Outlook is one of the
  Centres and the OECDs most successful
  publications. The Centre and the African
  Development Bank launched the AEO project having
  recognised a serious gap in our knowledge of
  African economies, especially in a comparative
  sense. Supported by funding from the European
  Communities, the joint Development Centre/AfDB
  AEO team is about to produce its third annual
  report. The value of the AEO is many fold, but
  its contribution to the envisaged NEPAD peer
  review process as well as to capacity building
  among the teams in Africa should be underlined.

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New Forms of Communication

• Policy Studies
• Policy Briefs
• Policy Insights
• Working papers
• Relaunched Newsletter
• Active Policy Analysis Networks
• Workshops and Expert Seminars
• Participation in Global and Regional Forums
• Informal Seminar Series

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• New forms of communication are accompanying the
  changes in the Development Centres role within
  the Organisation and in its relationship with
  policy makers. To make our work more accessible
  to policy makers and keep a wider public informed
  of what we are doing, we are remodelling our
  publications and concentrating more intensively
  on policy messages in both the Studies and the
  Briefs.
• A new series, called Policy Insights, will be
  of very short papers available for downloading.
  Their purpose is to distil the policy message of
  our work.
• The Centres Newsletter has been revamped to give
  information about the life of the Centre, but
  to do so in a thematic way we believe will be
  more instructive for the readership.
• Informal Seminars and major events involving
  high-level experts and political figures will
  continue. They are designed to harness knowledge
  and experience to feed into our research and
  analysis, and provide an arena for other parts of
  the Organisation to join in contemporary policy
  debates.
• All these products, with the exception of
  Studies, are available on our internet site.
  The site is constantly undergoing improvement. It
  will eventually become the major vector for
  dissemination.

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2003 Joint Events DCD/DAC/Development Centre

• Aid Effectiveness and Selectivity Integrating
  Multiple Objectives Into Aid Allocations Experts'
  Seminar, Paris 10/03
• Development Co-operation Partnership and the
  Governance of Aid Informal Seminar with the NGO
  network The Reality of Aid, Paris 27/05
• Meeting of Informal Network of DAC Heads of
  Information
• Ottawa, 5-6/06
• Land, Conflict and Development What Role for
  Donors?
• Experts' Seminar with USAID, Paris, 19-20/06
• Trade Capacity Building and Private Sector
  Development in Asia Regional Workshop, Phnom
  Penh, 2-3/12

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• Over the past year, the Development Centre has
  worked closely with DCD on policy coherence, aid
  effectiveness and selectivity, land and conflict
  and most notably trade capacity building.
• In fact, the OECD Policy Brief on Trade Capacity
  Building, prepared for the Cancún meeting, was
  jointly written by DCD and DEV similarly the
  success of the recently-concluded regional
  workshop in Phnom Penh is a mere example of the
  synergies that can be generated. An important
  area of collaboration is our joint work on and
  with non-governmental actors, such as the NGOs of
  the Reality of Aid Network.
• Finally, the Centre and the DAC/DCD have also
  been collaborating on the issue of "Public
  Attitudes towards Development Co-operation in the
  DAC Member countries", steering jointly the
  annual meetings of the Informal DAC Network of
  Heads of Communication and Information (last one
  held in June 2003 in Ottawa).

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Some Other Major 2003 Development Centre Events

• Joachim Chissano, President of the Republic of
  Mozambique Private Investment, Partnership and
  Progress in Africa. Informal Seminar, Paris,
  04/04
• Economic Development in Africa Outlook and
  Strategies. Conference with Istituto Affari
  Internazionali, Rome, 28/05
• The Coherence and Impact of Rich Countries
  Policies on Developing Countries. Experts
  Seminar, Paris. Sponsored by the Governments of
  the Netherlands and Sweden, 24/06
• Development and Trade Challenges and Priorities
  Participation of representatives from Brazil,
  Chile, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
  Informal seminar, Paris, 24/11
• Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Asia.
  Experts Seminar with the Asian Development Bank,
  Paris, 26-27/11

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• By no means are all major events organised by the
  Centre over the past year (2003) mentioned here.
• In April, President Joaquim Chissano of
  Mozambique, a major influence in the NEPAD
  process, accepted the Centres invitation to come
  to the OECD. In front of an audience of several
  officials from Delegations of the Secretariat he
  discussed the role of partnerships in development
  and his talk illustrated the benefits his own
  country has been able to draw from such
  partnerships.
• The Centre organised a round-table discussion
  last month immediately after the Cancun meeting.
  Presentations by leading experts and trade
  negotiators from Brazil, Chile, China, India,
  Mexico and South Africa contributed to our
  understanding of tradedevelopment interlinkages
  and the range of developing countries
  priorities. The presence at the round table of
  OECD Delegations and Directorates led to a frank
  and almost unique policy dialogue and showed the
  benefits that the Development Centre can bring to
  the OECD process.
• Finally, the long tradition of joint meetings
  with the regional development banks was continued
  in November with an experts meeting on foreign
  direct investment in Asia in collaboration with
  the ADB. The role of FDI and of
  FDI-trade-migration linkages were discussed
  extensively in the context of Asian countries and
  their impact on poverty alleviation and regional
  development were re-assessed.

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Looking ahead
The Objective
Coherence and effectiveness in policies for
development and poverty reduction
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• Looking ahead, in order to advance the
  post-Monterrey agenda and to promote development,
  we need to revisit the effectiveness and
  coherence of policies. Effectiveness implies the
  measurement of impacts. Coherence refers to the
  consistency across policy objectives and across
  instruments and between policy instruments and
  objectives. Trade, investment, development
  assistance and migration policies of OECD and
  developing countries interact with each other,
  producing different, and occasionally
  countervailing, impact effects. It is important
  therefore to understand both transmission
  mechanisms and interactions across policies and
  to measure their joint impact on poverty
  reduction and development.
• We should think again on the role of modalities
  and partnerships in achieving favourable outcomes
  and reassess the role of domestic institutions,
  governance and policy in sustaining pro-poor
  growth.
• Our challenge is to convince our stakeholders
  that a holistic approach to policy making is a
  prerequisite for a holistic approach to
  development.

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Concerted Action

• Cluster co-ordination

• Close collaboration with DCD

• Common priorities for development with other OECD
  Directorates and Committees

• Active constituencies in the capitals

• A reinforced relationship with DAC high-level
  representatives

And
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• Looking to the future, the Centre will be
  actively pursuing the goal of forging even closer
  links with all Cluster Units and especially with
  DCD and the DAC. We all worked together to
  produce a joint Cluster Strategy paper for
  consideration by the Council. In it we suggested
  development priorities for 2005-2006 for your
  consideration as well as the consideration of
  other OECD Committees.
• Our list of co-operative activities is
  substantial it will grow in the coming months
  and years. Likewise, we are working to improve
  our participation and representation in other
  relevant OECD Committees, to mainstream
  development priorities in OECD policy
  deliberations and to promote this holistic
  approach to policy design for development.
• None of this will be easy. Some of it will be
  impossible if the Centre cannot establish and
  maintain active constituencies in OECD capitals
  and a reinforced relationship with our
  shareholders in Foreign or Finance Ministries.
  The very nature of our work and the spread of our
  activities means that our major clients are not
  identical with our shareholders, so we need a
  filter to disseminate our work to interested
  parties and policy makers and to channel messages
  from capitals back to us. We need to tune our
  work to the concerns of OECD member countries,
  and to do that we need to know your major
  concerns regarding development policy. We need
  your advice as to how to relate better to policy
  makers in capitals. Would it make sense for our
  contact point in capitals to be drawn from this
  audience?
• This is an answer only you can supply and we
  would be grateful if you would think about it.

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a continuous substantive exchange with each of
you
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• These are our priorities. In the discussion that
  follows, I would be very grateful if you would
  reflect upon how you would like the OECD
  Development Centre to better support your own
  priorities and activities.