Tropentag, October 11 - 13, 2006 in Bonn "Prosperity and Poverty in a Globalized World – Challenges for Agricultural Research"

Modes of Delivery in Development Cooperation – Challenges for the Agricultural Sector

¹Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Division Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Germany
²Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Division Economic Policy and Employment, Germany

Abstract

Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS), a substantial increase in Official Development Assistance (ODA) and a higher quality of aid are major topics on the international development agenda. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (March 2005) defines ownership, alignment, harmonisation, management for results and mutual accountability as basic orientations for both donors and partner countries. Until 2010 two third of aid shall be channelled through Programme Based-Approaches (PBAs). Sector-Wide Approaches (SWAPs) are the most prominent form of PBAs at the sector level. SWAPs very often combine traditional aid modalities (projects) with new financial instruments like basket funding, budget support and TA-pooling. Sector programmes in agriculture have experienced both successes and failures. There are a lot of challenges ahead in order to transform the sector programme approach into a powerful instrument for agricultural development. Agriculture as a productive sector requires strategies that might differ from the concepts for social sectors like education and health. Legal, regulatory and institutional framework conditions and the role of private stakeholders are at least as important as the volume and allocation of public expenditures. On the one hand agricultural research should be an important sub-sector in a full-fledged agricultural sector programme. On the other hand research could contribute quite a lot to further develop the sector approach in agriculture. Basic conclusions and recommendations in this regard will be presented.

Keywords: Agricultural Research, Basket Funding, Budget Support, international Development Agenda, Millennium Development Goals, Paris Declaration, Poverty Reduction Strategies, Programme-Based Approaches, Sector Programmes in Agriculture, Sector-Wide Approaches

Contact Address: Georg Schaefer, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), Division Economic Policy and Employment, Dag-Hammarskjöld-Weg 1-5, 65760 Eschborn, Germany, e-mail: georg.schaefergtz.de