Antonio Tujan Jr.
IBON Foundation
Betteraid

• Refers to overall policy environment for development and development cooperation and economic relations – thus must be premised on fundamental development objectives such as HR, gender and sustainability (not just economic growth)
• Policy coherence is often confused with harmonization or coordination however it is related to aid effectiveness in a different way

• PCD refers to overarching development policy environment and improves with aid effectiveness
– Ownership – strong, inclusive national strategies recognized and supported by partners
– Alignment – participatory country systems and programs acceded and supported by partners
– Harmonization – country led coordination of partner participation and action
PCD is important to achieve development effectiveness in thoroughgoing way
– Focus on international dev goals inc MDGs
– Coherent development process
– Effective poverty reduction strategies

• Partnership and relations enhance and promote program country development goals, programs and strategies?
• Economic relations should do no harm?
– Trade, investment, climate, immigration
• Strengthened broad program country ownership of development policies and programs?

• Mechanisms such as coordination among ministries
• Regulations such as Swedish law
• Strong program country planning - Medium
Term Development Plans
• Oversight mechanisms - National Anti Poverty
Commission

Challenges in promoting policy coherence
• Aid fragmentation - global programs, private funds and emerging donors enhance policy fragmentation
• Multilateral organizations complicate situation and enhance incoherence, even poverty enhancing polices example of IFI SAPs, WTO and EC Trade policy
• Need to strengthen essential role of csos and parliaments in advocacy and developing policy coherence for development

Aid architecture reform urgently needed
• Policy fragmentation, and worse contradictory policy frameworks due to neoliberal orthodoxy in past half century resulted in mixed results and development disasters – free market economics pushed by IFIs through
SAPs contrary to interests of low income countries
• Ad hoc mechanisms such as G20 to address policy fragmentation in climate, trade, investment, development finance

Aid architecture reform urgently needed
• No international norm setting mechanism for development policy
• Absence of strong development policy architecture or development cooperation architecture to address incoherence in neoliberal trade and investment policy and shrinking policy space through mechanisms such as WTO and FTAs

Need for a convention on development effectiveness
• Betteraid studying feasibility of a convention on development effectiveness in development cooperation
– Address common standards and commitments for adherence to internationally agreed development goals and conventions
– Address need for commitment to policy coherence for development by strengthening intl policy frameworks
– strengthen international coordination and voluntary mechanisms, of all actors towards effective responses to both immediate and long term development challenges and demands