DEVELOPMENT: BRITISH WHITE PAPER SIGNALS POLICY CHANGE
TVE Monitor
BERLIN - The British Overseas Development Institute (ODI), has advised analysts to read between the lines of the British Government’s new White Paper on international development, 'Eliminating World Poverty: Making Governance Work for the Poor'.
"Beyond the headline message on governance, Hilary Benn is signalling differences with the World Bank and a more positive approach to two other pillars of the international system, the EU and the UN. The emphasis on science and technology also marks a break with the policies of the past decade," ODI's director Simon Maxwell said in a media release Jul. 14.
On governance, the White Paper commits the Department for International Development (DFID) to regular Quality of Governance Assessments to inform aid policy, a four-pronged push on corruption and a 146 million Euro fund for Governance and Transparency. Verena Fritz, a governance specialist at ODI commented.
"DFID is taking a principled but pragmatic approach – recognising that corruption cannot be eliminated at a stroke and that model democracies do not emerge overnight. DFID will provide support and incentives to reinforce progress. This emphasis on the ‘direction of travel’ is difficult and risky but offers the best chance of long-term progress," Fritz said.
Julius Court, also at ODI, said: "DFID has a comparative advantage in governance. The World Bank is shackled on politics. The key will be to see how this bold agenda works in practice. It will be politically sensitive. But it is vitally important."
DFID’s new policy builds on last year's report of the Africa Commission to put growth back at the centre of development policy and recognise the importance of science and technology in that process. It also signals a new commitment to multilateralism on climate change, and more generally.
ODI director Maxwell said: "Hilary Benn (Secretary of State for International Development.) has led internationally on reforming the international humanitarian relief system. The White Paper indicates that he will now turn his attention to the UN and the EU. A multilateral approach has to be right."
All these themes, along with many others are addressed in ODI’s 2006 annual report, entitled ‘What’s next in international development?’ published this month. The future of international development is a theme that ODI researchers have been examining since the start of this year. The multiple strands of ODI work around this question are brought together in the report which is available on the ODI website (www.odi.org.uk).
The British government White Paper’s main messages are:
- "We will deliver the promises we made in 2005 by: increasing our development budget to 0.7 percent of gross national income by 2013; concentrating our resources on the poorest countries -- particularly sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia -- and working more in fragile states; making sure that wider UK policies support development; and doubling funding for science and technology.
- "We will put governance at the centre of our work – focusing on building states that are capable, responsive and accountable to their citizens. We will use a new framework for assessing the quality of governance to do this and use the assessment to tailor our support appropriately to country circumstances. We will also step up our efforts dramatically to tackle corruption internationally, for example through a new anti-corruption unit and follow up to Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
- We will increase our effort to help people have security, incomes through growth and public services. We will commit 50 percent of all future bilateral aid to public services for poor people - social protection will be a major new area of work.
"We will work internationally to tackle climate change, by helping developing countries to participate in international negotiations on climate change and to integrate adaptation to climate change impacts into t (END)
