Good Governance for Development (GfD) in Arab Countries Initiative

The Good Governance for Development (GfD) in Arab Countries Initiative aims at modernising public governance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). By improving the environment for entrepreneurs, investors and job creation, it works towards sustainable development of the region.

The Initiative builds upon MENA countries’ ongoing reform efforts to modernise public governance. It

• Strengthens civil servants’ capacity to design, implement and monitor public governance reforms
• Creates a network for dialogue between policy makers from MENA and OECD countries
• Designs innovative solutions, tailored to the specific policy environments of each MENA country
• Assists ministries and government agencies to cooperate and coordinate their work
• Reinforces development initiatives supported by international, regional and bilateral donors

Creating a forum for MENA & OECD policy makers

The Initiative creates a forum for results-oriented policy dialogue, bringing together practitioners from MENA and OECD countries.

Through this innovative partnership, policy makers share their know-how on implementing public governance policies in six priority reform areas.These priority reform areas have been identified by MENA countries. Each is attributed to a Regional Working Group, led by a MENA country and co-chaired by member countries of the OECD.

• Civil Service and Integrity
• E-government and Administrative Simplification
• Governance of Public Finance
• Public Service Delivery, Public-Private Partnerships and Regulatory Reform
• Role of the Judiciary and Enforcement
• Civil Society and the Media

A Steering Group composed of the MENA Chairs and OECD Co-chairs guides and supervises the activities of the Regional Working Groups to ensure a co-ordinated approach with a government wide and non-sectoral perspective.

Setting clear targets and monitoring results

The 3-year implementation process of the Initiative is designed to realise the outcomes of the regional policy dialogue on the national level:

• Best practices and peer reviews by policy practitioners serve to design innovative solutions based on time-tested OECD working methods.
• Clearly defined action targets aim for realistic change. Country-specific measures and application tools build on existing national, bilateral and multilateral reform efforts to ensure effective implementation.
• Pilot projects serve as reference models for other participating countries and link the policy dialogue to actual reforms on the ground. They will be supported with technical and financial assistance by international donors.
• Monitoring tools ensure a timely and results-oriented implementation of the Initiative.
  

The GfD Initiative is supported by a unique partnership between the OECD and the Programme on Governance in the Arab Region (UNDP-POGAR). It is funded by voluntary contributions from Canada, Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden (Swedish International Co-operation Agency, SIDA), Turkey, the UK and the US as well as by contributions from Arab countries. In addition, these and further OECD countries as well as multilateral institutions like the World Bank provide policy expertise on an ongoing basis.