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What is the PDG?
The Partnership for Democratic Governance aims to support developing countries including fragile states, post-conflict states and emerging democracies in building their governance capacity and improving service delivery to their citizens.
Founded and established by countries and international and regional institutions from around the world, the PDG’s founding members are Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey, the United States, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Organization of American States (OAS), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The Partnership is supported by an Advisory Unit, housed at OECD in Paris.
What does the PDG do?
The Partnership for Democratic Governance:
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Helps to find experts – regionally, internationally and from the diaspora – who can respond to developing countries’ requests for expertise to improve government services and core state functions.
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Offers a range of international resources to address capacity gaps in developing countries, including providing governments with a choice of potential service providers, in the circumstances where direct service provision is considered to be the best choice.
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Directs international spotlight on acute service delivery needs and capacity gaps, thereby accelerating action from the international community.
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Develops countries’ capacity to deliver effective services and core state functions by ensuring that all activities include clear lines of accountability, finite timelines, and explicit capacity development strategies which reflect, inter alia, gender and environmental concerns.
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Develops “best practices” by testing, recording, and evaluating innovative approaches to capacity development and service delivery through the interim provision of relevant expertise.
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Provides opportunities for middle income countries to share their valuable experience and expertise through PDG-supported services. This will encourage south-south partnerships.
Who can ask the PDG for help?
Governments of any country on the OECD DAC list of Official Development Assistance recipients can contact the PDG for advice or assistance: www.oecd.org/dac/stats/daclist.
What is the PDG’s value-added?
While most multilateral and bilateral development agencies are active in the fields of governance and capacity building, the PDG is the only concerted international effort examining how the international community can directly and effectively support service delivery and provide expertise to deliver core policy functions. The Partnership:
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Facilitates the search for external service providers, for a specific period of time, to deliver effective public services and core state functions, while ensuring viable exit strategies in line with sustainable capacity development needs.
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Provides a direct route for support to countries which are marginalised from the international donor community or which have limited access to donors and potential service providers.
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Empowers governments by helping them set the priorities and terms of contracts with external providers along with auditing and accountability measures to meet needs as identified by the governments themselves.
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Shares the funding and personnel risks among a range of international partners.
What are the PDG’s main characteristics?
The Partnership for Democratic Governance:
1. Is demand-driven, accountable and responsive to countries’ needs. The PDG will assist only upon request from a developing country government and will ensure that the terms of contracts with external providers meet the needs identified by the requesting governments.
2. Promotes capacity development and well-defined exit strategies. Capacity development will be integral to all contracts facilitated by the PDG. This will guard against displacing or damaging the development of institutional capacity as a result of short-term imperatives of service delivery.
3. Is flexible, innovative and incremental. The PDG will give priority to requests for assistance with easily transferable technical skills where results can be achieved with a small number of international personnel and monitored through citizen feedback. These activities could include legal services, revenue, tax, audit, customs, central procurement, central banking, budget execution, and management of natural resource revenues.
The PDG Advisory Unit
The PDG Advisory Unit is the operational arm of the Partnership. It collects and shares information on best practices related to contracting out. It carries out country assessments and determines whether, given the country’s circumstances, direct provision of external expertise could deliver results and help build capacity. Depending on the outcome of this assessment, the Advisory Unit will either offer advice (including seeking service providers and financing from Partnership members) or facilitate contacts with other international partners who may be better placed to help.
The OECD hosts the PDG Advisory Unit and the OECD Secretary-General co-chairs the PDG Steering Group.
Drawing upon its global networks, presence in the field, and global partnerships, the UNDP will provide advice, guidance and recommendations to the Advisory Unit.
How to contact the PDG Advisory Unit?
For more information about the PDG and its Advisory Unit, please contact:
PDGcontact@oecd.org
PDG Advisory Unit
OECD,
2, rue André-Pascal
F-75775 Paris Cedex 16
France
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