Irish Aid’s Civil Society Policy and Development

Effectiveness

Purpose

• To reflect on the Irish Aid Civil Society Policy and its key messages

• To share with partners how the policy is influencing strategic direction in Irish Aid

• Asking partners to reflect on how their programmes are situated within this policy

• Explore how we can strengthen our partnerships during 2010 and beyond to focus more on impact and outcomes for poor people

Civil Society Policy Background

• Developed in 2006 with considerable input from Dochas members

• Broadly recognised as a strong policy • Provides significant clarity on the direction of

Irish Aid support to civil society • During 2009 presented to NGO partners in a

number of countries and used as basis of discussion internally and externally

Civil Society Policy Objectives

1. To support an enabling environment for civil society to organise and engage with government and its own broader constituencies; and

2. To support the role of civil society: – in promoting participation and good governance; – in ensuring pro poor service delivery and pro poor growth;

and – globally and nationally, to build a constituency for

development, human rights and social justice

What are the key messages?

• Civil society support has to be about impact and outcomes for the poor and vulnerable in society

• Partnership with Southern organisations – developing countries driving their own development

• Accountability – from State to citizens; from NGOs to intended beneficiaries; etc

• Explicitly recognises the importance of an enabling environment

Some implications for IA and our partners

• Imperative to increase the focus on quality and sustainable positive outcomes for poor people – communicating the change

• Need to examine the funding portfolio to assess balance between human rights/governance work and basic service delivery

• Assess how are partners are strengthening Southern organisations/national systems

• How partners are situating programmes within nationally defined priorities

• All support to civil society should be in line with policy

What is it all about?

It is NOT some new technocratic invention to make

our lives more difficult IT IS BASICALLY promoting good development practice

Civil Society Policy and Aid Effectiveness

• The Paris Declaration frames all of Irish Aid’s work including its partnerships with civil society organisations

• Its principles are ownership, alignment, harmonisation, mutual accountability and managing for development results

• Although implementation is not consistent and many obstacles remain, the Paris Declaration has been a very significant step for development cooperation

• Accra provided the opportunity for civil society to engage and make its commitments to increased effectiveness

Accra Agenda for Action

Four clauses on civil society: 1) The participation of civil society in national

policy formulation 2) An enabling environment for civil society 3) Promoting effectiveness 4) Donor support which respects the

autonomy of civil society organisations

Current thinking in Irish Aid on

what all this means for civil society support

Where are we now?

120+ partners

Contracting budgetary environment

Focus on administering schemes

Difficulty in absorbing budget

Increased focus on quality required

Where do we want to be? Quality rather than quantity

Strong systems in place

Robust criteria for selection of Strategic Partners

Incentives in place for focus on quality and accountability

Clear dialogue mechanisms with Irish Aid

Commitment from SMT for reform

Strong policy framework

Increased capacity

Opportunities for Change

Priorities for 2010

• Complete the MAPS review and reflect on its findings with our partners

• Define eligibility criteria grounded in the Civil Society policy and aid effectiveness

• Clarify what way we should fund our partners – strategic level funding vis-à-vis project funding

• Strengthen the role of support organisations in assisting the sector become increasingly professional and quality focussed

Some challenges for our partners.. ..from our perspective

• To clearly define what it is they want to achieve in terms of impact and outcomes for poor people

• Partnership with Southern organisations – how to make that more real – need for clarity on what is the value added of supporting Irish NGOs

• Context Analysis – generally very weak • Capacity to account for monies received • Fragmentation of sector – implications for impact • How to improve coordination/division of labour? • Learning and applying lessons – translating experience

into policy and practice