“Barely three years after joining the DAC, Iceland is already an active and influential member, capitalising on its domestic strengths to build solutions for least-developed countries that are in line with the global development goals,” said DAC Chair Charlotte Petri Gornitzka. “At the same time, Iceland’s aid budget has not caught up with the robust pace of its economic recovery and Iceland should now do more to meet its commitments.”
Read more“Political and public support will be vital to give the government legitimacy to provide more foreign aid,” said DAC Chair Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, presenting the Review in Warsaw. “Budgets aside, Poland should develop clearer strategic guidance to ensure that it adds value and targets poverty reduction in priority areas and countries, including outside the Eastern Partnership region.”
Read moreThe United States has maintained foreign aid volumes through the aftermath of the global economic crisis and has visibly improved the focus and effectiveness of its development assistance. These trends should be maintained and reforms to the U.S. Agency for International Development should be consolidated, according to a new OECD DAC Peer Review.
Read morePeer reviews provide in-depth examinations of development systems and policies, including lessons learned, in all DAC member countries.
Consult all reviewsThe OECD DAC conducts periodic reviews of the individual development co-operation efforts of its 29 members. The objectives of DAC peer reviews are to improve the quality and effectiveness of development co-operation policies and systems, and to promote good development partnerships for better impact on poverty reduction and sustainable development in developing countries. DAC peer reviews assess the performance of a given member, not just that of its development co-operation agency, and examine both policy and implementation. They take an integrated, system-wide perspective on the development co-operation and humanitarian assistance activities of the member under review. |
How peer reviews workEach DAC member country is peer reviewed roughly every five years with two main aims: to help the country understand where it could improve its development strategy and structures so that it can increase the effectiveness of its investment; and to identify and share good practice in development policy and strategy. Led by examiners from two DAC member states, the process typically takes around six months to complete and culminates with the publication of the findings. |
Lessons from peer reviewsWhat are countries doing to fulfill their development co-operation objectives and public commitments? Drawing on lessons from our peer reviews, we produce a range of publications that look at different aspects of this question. Managing Aid: Practices of DAC Member Countries is one example. Another is Effective Aid Management: Twelve Lessons from DAC Peer Reviews, designed to help aid practitioners improve their management and delivery of development assistance by learning from each others' experience. More recently, we have introduced an in-depth, thematic, peer learning process across DAC members. The first such exercise was on private sector engagement, to learn lessons from experience on how to work effectively with and through the private sector in development co-operation. |