Information regarding development assistance.
In spite of decades of development assistance, it is often difficult to give a clear answer to the question of what in general works best in development assistance interventions.
The effect of a development assistance project on poverty and development will often be dependent on a great number of factors that are unique to that particular situation (the context), but which are outside the control of the concrete project. For example, a fully operative dairy can be erected that is not successful in terms of development and poverty reduction because a milk collecting system does not exist, local roads for transporting the milk have not been constructed, or there is no local market for the products.
A great number of factors have to be in place for success to be ensured. This is why planning and implementing development assistance projects is often a complicated affair. It is hard to give a clear-cut answer to what works in development assistance – to provide a blueprint – without placing this answer in its precise local context.
We gain a better understanding of what is needed to create good development assistance by means of increased monitoring, lessons learned and evaluation.
This is where research on the results of development assistance enters the picture. The causal relations, which frequently are complex, require in-depth analysis to determine precisely the factors that are important to incorporate in the design and implementation of successful development assistance programmes.
In recent years most development assistance organisations have increased their efforts to identify what the conditions for good development assistance are and how these conditions can be transferred to development assistance interventions.
USAID works together with a number of American institutions to define what works in development assistance at both macro and micro level. The focus of the research is on specific challenges in implementing the individual development assistance project and on obtaining concrete proof of what works.
The World Bank, including the World Bank Institute, focuses on developing and communicating instruments and knowledge for improving development assistance programmes. This research takes a more general approach to the results of development assistance, and communicating broadly on the research results is prioritised, inter alia in the annual World Development Reports.
The British DFID conducts research focusing heavily on the results of development assistance, cf. for example the Research for Development initiative at www.dfid.gov.uk/R4D/. Research is carried out on several levels, among other things with close links between evaluation, internal learning and research on the results of development assistance.
Swedish SIDA focuses strongly on, for example, involving partners in the South in research on the results of research.
Canadian CIDA, like Swedish SIDA, focuses attention on involving researchers in the recipient countries and their views on the factors that are important for the results of development assistance.
In 2010 Danida’s research on the results of development assistance were intensified through the international research programme (RECOM) [LINK TIL 4.5.2 RECOM], which is being carried out in cooperation with SIDA and is coordinated by UNU-Wider. By analysing existing knowledge, the programme is to identify what works in development assistance and disseminate this knowledge to the public at large.