EuropeAid
ENGAGING NON-STATE ACTORS IN NEW
AID MODALITIES
Structured dialogue
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CONTENT
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1. Why a new
reference
document on NSAs
and NAMs?
1. What are findings
and what guidance
does it provide?
1. How to take this
process further?
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1. WHY THIS DOCUMENT ABOUT NSAs and
NAMs?
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The answer consists of four parts:
A. The evolving agenda of participatory development
B. The efforts to make aid more effective through new aid
modalities
C. The stronger emphasis on knowledge about state-society
relations and politics in development.
D. Bringing various groups of EC practitioners together
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A. Participatory development
and Non-State Actors
Development
assistance includes
support to and
through NSAs
Development is a multistakeholder process where
the central state is one of
the actors
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Development is a
multi-actor
participatory process
Participatory
development
NSAs are not only
implementing agencies
but also promoters of
democracy, justice and
human rights
EC/EU is committed to
strengthening NSAs to
fully participate in
political, economic and
social dialogue processes
Civil Society is
recognised in all its
diversity
B. More effective
aid and New Aid Modalities
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• EC and other donors look for ways to make their aid more
effective
• These efforts include among other things ways to:
o Align behind country policies (if these reduce poverty)
o Align behind country systems (if there are serious efforts
to make these systems work for the poor)
o Reduce the burden on partners (through harmonisation)
o And move from government ownership to country
ownership,
o And from mutual to domestic accountability
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• What are these new aid modalities
o Budget support
o And the so-called sector wide approaches – or the EC’s
Sector Policy Support Programmes – aren’t either
• What is new about these modalities?
o It’s not just about the money
o Nor about one input, instrument or tool
o It’s about and aid package,
o An aid package that applies the principles to make aid
more effective
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budget support as
an “aid package” includes:
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Alignment with partner
country policies
Alignment with
partner country
systems
Policy dialogue
Budget support
SPSP
Harmonisation
among donors
Results orientation
Capacity development inputs
C. Importance of state-society relations,
and politics
• Growing realisation that politics can help explain where aid
has been effective and where not
• It matters to know:
o If and how state-society bargaining takes place
o Whether, how and around which interests citizens
organise collectively
o How elites come to political settlements, for example
over taxes, but also over the distribution of resources
such as aid
o Whether poverty reduction strategies and sector policies
have sufficient backing within government, or within
groups in society,
o Etc..
• This knowledge is very country or context specific
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This Reference Document connects these
three processes or agendas:
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Effective aid
through NAMs
Participatory
development
through NSAs
Improved
knowledge of
State-society
relations
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D. It also connects three groups of EC
practitioners
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Macro
economists
Experts
working with
NSAs
Thematic
and sector
experts
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The reference document takes stock of the
following experiences and processes:
• In-house consultation on NSAs and NAMs
• Stock-taking of experiences in EC Delegations and
development of country cases
• Ongoing EC consultations on budget support (Green Paper
process)
• EC redesign of budget support guidelines
• NSA related work in the Structured Dialogue, evaluations,
studies and audits
• Ongoing work on improving the context analysis as part of
the re-design of the Project and Programme Cycle
Management
• Ongoing work of applying the Governance Analysis
Framework in sector operations often involving macro
economists and sector specialists
• NSA related initiatives related to Domestic Accountability
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2. SO HOW TO TAKE THESE AGENDAS
FURTHER?
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Four types of guidance
From this work emerges one core message and three types of
guidance:
• One core message: pay more attention to relations
between state and non-state actors, and balance the support
accordingly
• Four fundamentals and operational principles
• Step by step operational guidance
• Smart guidance to take the ambitious agendas further
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EuropeAid
1
Recognize the diversity of NSAs:
Move beyond the usual civil society ‘suspects’
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Assess and analyze NSA interests, values,
histories, incentives, roles, functions,
governance structures:
Often a more fine-grained analysis is required of the
diverse roles and structures of NSAs, the capacity for
collective action, the incentives that drive them, their
values and organic growth.
3
Ensure the independence of NSAs:
A meaningful contribution of NSAs is only possible if
they can act as actors in their own right.
Fundamen
tal 1:
treat nonstate
actors as
actors
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2
Introduce systematically political
economy and governance analysis:
Move away from a perspective of “what should be
done”, to what “could be done”.
3
Incentivize continued learning:
Favour incremental change rather than modular,
overambitious leapfrogs to grand scale reforms
Fundament
al 2:
analyse
statesociety
relations
systematic
ally
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1
Combine the full range of modalities and
instruments in a strategic way:
The EC has a responsibility for the combined impact
of all its development efforts.
2
Balance support for state and non-state
actors in a purposeful way:
The EC shares the responsibility with other donors
over the longer-term impact on state-society
relations beyond project and programme cycles.
Fundamen
tal 3
the full
potential
of NSAs
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1
Avoid a technocratic approach to aid
effectiveness and the role of NSAs:
Accept the need for a political approach
3
Prepare for playing new roles:
NAMs touch on the nature of the state and its
relations with society and NSAs.
Inevitably, this touches also on domestic power
relations and politics.
So the EC must prepare to be an informed political
player.
Fundamten
tal 4
Do no
harm
play new
roles
Operational guidance
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Multiple questions remain about how to strategically
engage with NSAs. Questions about:
• The key features of the new aid modalities and the potential
roles that NSAs can play
• How to identify opportunities for strategic engagement with
NSAs in a particular context
• The entry points in the Cycle of Operations for engaging
strategically with NSAs
• And how to combine EC tools, instruments and approaches
Further step by step guidance deals with these
operational matters.
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Smart guidance
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This is a tall agenda. One that takes time, and one that
will be demanding to implement.
Therefore, further guidance is about developing smart
partnerships to tackle these interlinking agendas:
• Joint analysis and knowledge development with other donors
• Smart funding arrangements to underpin a strategic
approach
• Ensure cooperation and linkages between non-state actors
and other domestic accountability actors
• Smart partnerships with local governments
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3. HOW TO TAKE THIS PROCESS FURTHER?
A “living document”
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• This Reference Document is not a final product
• The guidance it contains will be shared through the
Consultative Dialogue Process
• Other ongoing processes to tap into are the EC efforts to
improve the coordination and pertinence of budget support,
as well as the ongoing work on mutual and domestic
accountability
• Through the Capacity4Dev Platform, it will promote
further discussion, dialogue and blogging on experiences
from the field
• This may contribute to improving the strategic and
operational guidance on how to improve the EC’s
engagement with state and society for development.
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Thank you for the attention
In case of questions, shoot… so to speak
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