Technical Cooperation its role in Capacity Development

1
Technical Cooperation- its role in Capacity
Development
Structured Policy Dialogue, Istanbul, 12-13
October 2006
Ben Dickinson OECD DAC Secretariat
2
The Problem
TC programmes have come under repeated criticism
for being too costly, inappropriate to
recipients needs, or fostering dependency. In
the past, donors have broadly assumed that they
will promote capacity development, but reality
has proved much more complex. (OECD DAC
Development Cooperation Report, 2005)
3
Capacity Development Gaining Prominence

• Strong consensus that capacity development is
  central to the achievement of the MDGs, the
  implementation of the Paris Declaration and the
  scaling-up of aid.
• Country capacity is the key to accelerating
  economic growth and reducing poverty.
• Country ownership will not emerge in the absence
  of sufficient local capacity.

4
Definitions Technical Cooperation (TC)

• TC is the provision of know-how in the form of
  personnel, training, research and associated
  costs.
• TC comprises study assistance through
  scholarships and traineeships the supply of
  personnel, including experts, teachers and
  volunteers research on the problems of
  developing countries.
• These categories overlap and the boundaries are
  not always clear.

5
Definitions Capacity Development (CD)

• CD is the process whereby people, organisations
  and society as a whole manage their affairs.
• Capacity can be viewed as the potential to
  perform.
• CD is about retaining, unleashing, strengthening,
  adapting and maintaining capacity over time. This
  takes account of issues of brain drain and the
  role of diasporas.

6
How do TC and CD relate to each other?

• TC does not equal CDalthough it is sometimes
  used as a proxy for CD (e.g. Paris indicators)
• TC is an input, CD is an outcome.
• CD occurs as well through major inputs other than
  TC, like national education systems, or certain
  financial assistance programmes.
• Conversely, some TC is non-capacity enhancing
  such as expert substitution or gap-filling.

7
TC What have we learned?

• About a quarter of what DAC donors spendor 20
  billion per yearis on TC but the impact on CD
  outcomes is unclear.
• Evaluations have not focussed sufficiently on the
  impact of TC on incentives or organisational
  capability.
• TC has not been subject to the analytical rigour
  of other investment decisions.

8
CD What have we learned ?

• Four decades of experience point to the
  inadequacy of ad hoc, piece-meal and often
  supply-driven approaches to CD.
• Donors have treated CD mainly as a challenge of
  technical transfer from North to South
  insufficient attention paid to context, politics
  and governance.
• CD is successful when the enabling governance
  conditions are right and ownership is strong.

9
The future of CD?

• There is a growing consensus about how to support
  CD, set out in the DACs paper The Challenge of
  Capacity Development Working towards Good
  Practice. Issues include
• Thinking through capacity issues at three
  interrelated levels individual, organisational
  and enabling environment levels.
• Recognising that CD is necessarily an endogenous
  process.

10
The future of CD continued?

• Encouraging the emergence of country-led CD
  plans, taking the local context as the starting
  point and thinking and acting within longer time
  frames.
• Designing strategies for making use of diasporas
  and for reducing brain drain. Retaining and
  unleashing existing capacities is a priority.
• Responding to partner countries preferences for
  more South-to-South learning and the
  strengthening of South based institutions to help
  with CD.

11
The future of TC?

• Although heavily criticised, TC is not good or
  badit depends on how it is managed.
• The challenge is how TC can come under more
  direct control by the recipient and be responsive
  to recipients real needs.
• E.g. How to avoid supply-driven TC? (TC is often
  off budget not procured by Government often
  provided through parallel implementation units
  fragmented costs and fees lack transparency).

12
The future of TC continued ?

• How to make the provision of TC more
  market-based?
• How to pool TC among donors to ensure greater
  coherence and co-ordination?
• How to disaggregate DAC TC statistics in order to
  test how different instruments within the TC
  bundle can contribute to capacity development?

13
(No Transcript)
14
Technical Cooperation-its role in Capacity
Development

• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION