Strengthening Accountability in Aid for Trade

At a time when aid budgets are under pressure and scrutiny, there is a need to improve accountability. This is especially true in the case of aid for trade, which has become an increasingly important priority in development co-operation.   Strengthening Accountability in Aid for Trade looks at what the trade and development community needs to know about aid-for-trade results, what past evaluations of programmes and projects reveal about trade outcomes and impacts, and how the trade and development community could improve the performance of aid for trade interventions.

Publication date: November 2011

Trade for Growth and Poverty Reduction: How Aid for Trade Can Help

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This publication explains how Aid for Trade can foster economic growth and reduce poverty, and why it is an important instrument for a development strategy that actively supports poverty alleviation. Unlocking this potential requires carefully designed and sequenced trade reforms. While developing countries have many trade-related needs, but financial resources and political capital for reforms are limited, it is an important priority to tackle the most binding constraints to trade expansion. This report describes the diagnostic tools available, evaluates their strengths and weaknesses, and suggests a dynamic framework to guide the sequencing of reform and donor support.

Publication date: April 2010

ICTs for Development: Improving Policy Coherence

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Information communication technologies (ICTs) are crucial to reducing poverty, improving access to health and education services and creating new sources of income and employment for the poor. Being able to access and use ICTs has become a major factor in driving competitiveness, economic growth and social development. In the last decade, ICTs, particularly mobile phones, have also opened up new channels for the free flow of ideas and opinions, thereby promoting democracy and human rights.

There is much work to be done on improving policy coherence and there is a need to engage more actively with partner countries. Making the most of ICTs requires that they are seen as part of innovation for development, rather than just another development tool.

This publication examines access to ICTs as a precondition to their use; broadband Internet access and governments' role in making it available; developments in mobile payments; ICT security issues; ICTs for improving environmental performance; and the relative priority of ICTs in education. 

Publication date: Feb 2010

 Internet Access for Development

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The Internet has been remarkably successful in developing greater opportunities for communication access - and economic growth and social development - for the first billion users. The majority of the next several billion users will be mainly from developing countries and will connect to the Internet principally via wireless networks. But there are substantial discrepancies in access to ICTs between developed and developing countries and also within countries, depending on factors such as gender, rural coverage, skills and educational levels.

This book examines how the market for internet traffic exchange has evolved and explores the coherence of policies pursued by developed and developing countries. It notes the increasing innovation occurring in a number of developing countries with competitive markets and discusses how liberalisation has helped to expand of access networks and make ICT services increasingly affordable and available to the poor. The report also highlights the employment, micro-entrepreneurial and social development opportunities which have emerged as access levels have risen among low-income users. The study notes that gateway service monopolies - still in 70 countries -  raise the prices for accessing international capacity and reduce the affordability of Internet access to business and end users.

Publication date: June 2009

Coherence for Health: Innovation for New Medicines for Infectuous Diseases

 The health innovation system is failing to deliver the new medicines, vaccines and diagnostics that are required for neglected infectious diseases. And because of low return on investment, combined with high developmental risks, businesses are discouraged from engaging in research in this area.

How can we make these markets viable, expand the global capacity for drug discovery and increase the productivity of R&D? Innovation is a multi-sectorial endeavour that demands strong policy coherence.

This book looks at ways of improving the availability of medicines for infectious diseases through strengthened coherence in health, trade, science and technology, development co-operation and finance. This publication is an important contribution to enhancing policy coherence for development in the health sector. It will help achieve better outcomes for both developing and developed countries.

Publication date: April 2009

Reconciling Development and Environmental Goals: Measuring the Impact of Policies 

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Policy coherence is increasingly in the interest of OECD countries and developing countries alike, given their growing economic, social and environmental interdependence. Decision makers need to be informed of possible interactions and consequences of their decisions before spending public funds or adopting reforms or policies that may adversely affect developing countries.
This report is an innovative contribution to providing the quantitative input sound decision making needs. It presents scenarios showing numerical results of changes to individual policies as well as policy packages implemented simultaneously by OECD and developing countries. The results can be used to anticipate the outcomes of decisions and implement the appropriate set of policies. The scenarios also show how policy combinations could substantially improve both economic and environmental outcomes together, confirming the need for policy coherence.

Publication date: Oct 2008

Policy Coherence in the Fisheries Sector in Seven West African Countries 

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This report presents outcomes of a study, conducted by the OECD Fisheries Policies Division, in partnership with the SWAC and ENDA Diapol/REPAO, which takes a developing country perspective on the issue of policy coherence in fisheries. The aim of the study is to apply the OECD policy coherence for development analytical framework to the fisheries situation within a regional African context. Seven West African countries (Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, - all members of the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission) are analysed within this framework. Key areas for action by international, regional and local partners are suggested in the report, including the need for a multi-stakeholder dialogue on policy coherence as a priority-setting exercise.

Publication date: Dec 2007

Cotton in West Africa: The Economic and Social Stakes

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This book contends that dialogue between developed and developing countries should continue in order to find a lasting solution to the difficulties facing the cotton sub sector. It sets out the regional stakes linked to the economic and social importance of cotton in West Africa. It retraces the consultation process on the West African cotton crisis with the aim of finding a negotiated solution acceptable to all parties. Also discussed are the challenges and the measures that need to be taken over the medium and long term in order to prevent this sub sector’s sudden collapse. 

Publication date: Dec 2006 

Trade-Related Assistance: What Do Recent Evaluations Tell Us?

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This publication draws on key findings and recommendations emerging from available donor evaluation reports, assesses factors that have contributed to the success (or failure) of past programmes, and provides guidance for enhancing the effectiveness and impact of future trade-related assistance. It argues that despite some positive results, further improvements are necessary, in particular, with regards to donor programming, donor harmonisation and donor-recipient partnerships, and by better taking account the basic principles of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. This report contributes to ongoing discussions for effectively designing and delivering aid for trade as a complement to the Doha Development Agenda.

Publication date: 2007

Aid for Trade: Making It Effective

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This publicaton sets out how much aid the members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) are already providing towards trade-related activities. It reviews the effectiveness of existing programmes, and argues that reinforcing mutual accountability at the local level, together with a global review mechanism, i.e. applying the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, would enhance the impact of Aid for Trade. In particular, strengthening country ownership and management for results are essential to ensure that Aid for Trade delivers larger benefits from the multilateral trading system to the least developed and developing countries, and enables them to develop effectively.

Publication date: Oct 2006

Fishing for Coherence: Fisheries and Development Policies 

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Four main types of policy coherence issues in fisheries are identified and ten case studies are classified accordingly, resulting in an organising framework towards a better understanding of fisheries and development coherence issues. Is policy coherent at all levels, from international to local, for example in the area of fisheries trade (transnational) and development policies. Is fisheries policy coherent with other sectoral policies, notably environmental policy?  A complementary typology allows policy makers to gauge the extent to which policy makers have addressed coherence.

Summaries in Portuguese and Spanish

Publication date: Aug 2006

Integrating Human Rights into Development: Donor Approaches, Experiences and Challenges

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This book enhances understanding on why and how we need to work more strategically and coherently on the integration of human rights and development. It reviews the approaches of different donor agencies and their rationales for working on human rights, and identifies the current practice in this field. It illustrates how aid agencies are working on human rights issues at the programming level, and it draws together lessons that form the core of the current evidence around the added value of human rights for development.  This publication shows that there are various ways for donor agencies to take human rights more systematically into account.

Publication date: June 2006

Coherence of Agricultural and Rural Development Policies

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How far can sector-specific agricultural policies contribute to the economic performance of rural areas? To what extent can rural development policies contribute to the economic performance of rural areas, in particular of agriculture? The recent OECD Workshop on Coherence of Agricultural and Rural Development Policies examined these and other issues through thematic studies and country experiences.

Publication date: June 2008

The Development Effectiveness of Food Aid: Does Tying Matter?

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This study provides a detailed look into two food aid issues: first, a comparison of the  relative costs of providing in-kind with cash contributions; second, the inherent costs involved in tying food aid. The findings of this study show that, in most circumstances, financial aid rather than food aid in-kind is the preferable option, not only for providing project assistance or budgetary support for general development, but even for the distribution of food. We learn that in many food-deficit situations, local procurement is not always a feasible option. In conclusion, context-specific rationale is always required for relying on food aid in kind in preference to financial aid.
 

Publication date: May 2006

Trade, Agriculture and Development: Policies Working Together
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Why is policy coherence for development important to policy makers, producers and the rural poor?  How does it affect global agricultural trade?  Can greater policy coherence help reduce poverty reduction and alleviate hunger? These are some of the issues addressed in these proceedings of the OECD Global Forum on Agriculture, held in Paris on 30 November - 1 December 2005.
 

Publication date: Apr 2006

Miracle, Crisis and Beyond: A Synthesis of Policy Coherence towards East Asia

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What factors govern growth and sustainability? The remarkable recent development of several East Asian countries had brought this question to the fore. This volume looks at the impact of OECD country policies on the region in a variety of areas: trade, investment, environment, agriculture, finance and aid, as well as macroeconomic policies and regional co-operation. It examines the coherence lessons of these OECD-country policies. Lastly, it contributes answers to the world-wide quest for ways to reduce poverty and promote growth with equity.

Publication date: Mar 2006

Agriculture and Development: The Case for Policy Coherence 

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Despite concerted efforts over recent years, the incoherence between some of the OECD countries’ agricultural policies and their declared development goals remains blatant, and seriously undermines the credibility of political commitment to these goals. In order to break the vicious cycle of broken promises about agricultural policy reforms, those who make decisions on domestic, trade and regulatory policies in OECD countries need an analytical framework that makes the choices and trade-offs clear. This publication responds to their need.

Publication date: Nov 2005

Migration, Remittances and Development

Online BookshopThis publication presents the current situation with regard to the magnitude and economic impact of migrants’ remittances to their countries of origin. In 2004, remittances exceeded official development aid in several emigration countries: they totalled USD 126 billion according to IMF estimates.

Publication date: Nov 2005

Policy Coherence for Development: Promoting Institutional Good Practice 

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This publication sets out the key lessons learned from a process launched in 2003 aimed at drawing lessons from peer reviews. It focuses on how OECD DAC governments organise themselves to respond to the challenge of policy coherence for development. It describes some current institutional approaches of DAC members for bringing together all aspects of policy that impact on developing countries, giving examples from recent peer reviews. The publication also highlights emerging good practice among DAC members. 

Publication date: Sept 2005

Fostering Development in a Global Economy: A Whole of Government Perspective

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This publication takes up the pressing issues of coherence between trade, agriculture, migration and aid policies. It proposes concrete evaluation approaches, methods and governance, and concludes with a specific proposal to evaluate the OECD's efforts in promoting policy coherence for development.

Publication date: Oct 2005