Annual Ambassadors’ Conference

1. How serious are we about ownership? Annual Ambassadors’ Conference Javier Santiso Director and Chief Economist OECD Development Centre The Hague, The Netherlands 4 September 2008

2. 1 The Principle of Ownership in 2008: Home Grown Solutions 3 Broader Ownership Beyond 2008 Overview: How Serious are We About Ownership? 2 The Obstacles to Home-Grown Development Knowledge 2 ANNUAL AMBASSADORS’ CONFERENCE

3. 1. The Principle of Ownership in 2008: Home-Grown Solutions A series of Declarations highlight the importance of Ownership • Monterrey Consensus 2002 • “Effective partnerships among donors and recipients are based on the recognition of national leadership and ownership of development plans”. • Paris Declaration 2005 • Recipient countries must “exercise effective leadership over their development policies” and “coordinate development actions”. • The target: 75% of countries have “operational development strategies” by 2010 (evaluated by World Bank on the basis of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers).

4. 1. The Principle of Ownership in 2008: Home-Grown Solutions Some progress has been made • 8 of 62 recipient countries surveyed have “largely developed” operational development strategies. • Most countries (67 %) have “taken action” in putting one together. Source: Progress Report on Implementing the Paris Declaration, prepared for the Accra High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, 2008.

5. 1. The Principle of Ownership in 2008: Home-Grown Solutions But the Paris Declaration’s take on ownership is shaky • Ownership is a long-term process and requires actors outside central government to be engaged. • Ownership requires home-grown solutions. So: ownership cannot be measured only (or mostly) through PRSPs, which are drafted by central government and negotiated with strong donor input. Source: Discussions at our “Ownership in Practice” Workshop, led by more than 30 experts from developing countries (September 2007).

6. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Three obstacles • The development finance “non-system” strains weak capacities to take ownership. • Donors dominate development knowledge: knowledge is power. • Governance structures often prevent local policy debate.

7. Observer status in DAC 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions The international “non-system” is expanding Public Private BilateralDonors MultilateralDonors Global Programmes NGOs Other private non profit Private for profit 5 DAC donors Incl. bilateral development banks and agencies GFATM GAVI Global EnvironmentFacility Fast Track Initiative/ Education for All … InternationalNGOs Foundations Firms World Bank 23 IMF 2 32 5 UNDP National NGOs in donor countries Households (e.g. remittances and other private transfers) Commercial Banks 4 EC Other OECDdonors (non-DAC) Regionaldev. banks & agencies 12 National NGOs in developing countries Private Investors 97 UN SpecialisedAgencies Others, e.g. Islamic Dev. Bank Emerging donors 47

8. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Financing mechanisms are multiplying Source: Financing Development 2008: Whose Ownership? OECD Development Centre Based on Kaul and Conceicao (2006)

9. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Private donors are matching official aid budgets Source: Koch, D. J., in Financing Development 2008: Whose Ownership?OECD Development Centre

10. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Development knowledge remains donor-driven “Northern donors and think tanks and Northern-controlled multilateral organizations dominate the development knowledge industry. In so doing they exert a major influence on the policies and decisions of governments in the South.” by Norman Girvan (University of the West Indies) from “Home-grown Solutions and Ownership” prepared for our Workshop on “Ownership in Practice” (27-28 Sep 2007) See: www.oecd.org/development/globalforum

11. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Donors continue to use ineffective policy conditions Conditions : • have not been applied consistently • are often inappropriate to local circumstances • undermine local accountability structures Source: Mold, A., and F. Zimmermann, A Farewell to Policy Conditionality, August 2008 OECD Development Centre

12. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Donors fail to invest in Southern-based knowledge centres Of the annual $1.3 billion of ODA spent on development research, only 6 per cent goes to developing countries. Source: An Initiative to Strengthen Policy Analysis in Developing Countries, Rationale Paper for IDRC-Hewlett Think Tanks Initiative, 2006, based on OECD Creditor Reporting System.

13. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Are NGOs better at fostering Southern views? Only 6 per cent of NGO Board members are from developing countries. Source: Koch DJ, in Financing Development 2008: Whose Ownership?OECD Development Centre

14. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Private banks could also base more analysts in the South

15. More than 70 per cent of the world’s 5000 think tanks are based in OECD countries. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Developing countries lack think tanks Source: Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (2007)

16. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions Southern think tanks lack resources Source: Santiso, J. and Whitehead, L. (2006), Ulysses, the Sirens and the Art of Navigation: Political and Technical Rationality in Latin America, Working Paper No. 256, OECD Development Centre

17. 2. The Obstacles to Home-Grown Solutions But local thinking is vital for governance…and ownership! Source: OECD Development Centre, 2008, based on World Bank Governance Indicators (2007) and data from the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (2007).

18. 3. Broader Ownership Beyond 2008 Governments must broaden the policy debate Broader ownership means (also) engaging with parliaments, local authorities, civil society and the media. This requires: • Guaranteeing democracy and freedom of information • Reinforcing the role of national democratic institutions • Capacity development for non-state actors

19. 3. Broader Ownership beyond 2008 Donors should foster local knowledge production This means: • Reviewing conditionality • Can performance-based conditions replace policy conditions? • Supporting local research and think tanks • Endowments & core funding provide resources and promote independence. • Showing the way: Hewlett Foundation and IDRC Think Tank Initiative.

20. www.oecd.org/dev/publications/finance/2008 Financing Development 2008: Whose Ownership?

21. African Economic Outlook 2008: Technical Skills Development • Comprehensive, country-by-country analysis of economic, social, political development • Covers 35 countries: 87% of continent’s population; 95% of economic output • Produced with African Development Bank, UNECA and 5 African thinks tanks • OECD transferred leadership to African Development Bank with 2008 edition www.oecd.org/dev/aeo

22. African Economic Outlook impact International Forum on African Perspectives Paris, June 2008 Seminar on Capitol Hill Washington D.C, June 2008 EU-Africa Summit Lisbon, December 2007 TICAD Tokyo, May 2008 AfDB Annual Meeting Maputo, May 2008 • International launch at AfDB Annual Assembly: 11th May 2008 • European launch: 13th May 2008 • Over 40 presentations on 4 continents within 3 months of publication

23. Thank you ! Further information: www.oecd.org/dev www.oecd.org/development/globalforum Javier.santiso@oecd.org