Learning objectives
Participants will gain insight into:
 Elements to take into account when designing a support
strategy:
 different entry points of support to decentralisation
 sequencing of support
 approaches to capacity development;
 How to use and reinforce national procedures and
mechanisms in designing support strategies;
 Incentives and obstacles within each others’ organisations
and within partner country governments that might help or
hinder harmonisation and alignment.
Session overview
 Intro: designing coherent support strategies
 Group work: lessons learnt on support to
decentralisation & local governance
 Presentations on DPs experience with sequencing of
support modalities
 Preconditions and action points for improving
alignment and harmonisation
 Fishbowl discussion on incentives for harmonisation
and alignment
Introducing strategic options
Group work: Defining lessons learnt
Overall recommendations
How to determine adequate support
strategies?
Direct support to decentralisation
‘Classic’ sector support programmes
Applying an
“open systems”
perspective
Identifying
strategic
options
Understanding
the country
context
Mapping and
understanding
the actors
Identifying concrete strategic options
for supporting decentralisation
Supporting decentralisation:
• Focus
• Entry points
• Sequencing of support
• Capacity development approach
Focus
• Should the support have a multi-actor and/or
network focus? Which relevant players to
involve?
• Choosing a single-layer or multi-layer focus?
Which levels are appropriate to intervene at?
• Should it be a country-wide or a regionally
focused intervention?
• Which processes do we want to engage in?
Which other partner processes should we link up
with?
Entry points
• Central government institutions
• Regional governments
• Local governments
• Local economic actors, private companies
• Civil society, non-governmental
organisations, associations
• Supervisory bodies, such as parliaments,
audit courts and ombudsmen
Choosing the right sequencing
 Invest in a shared vision on decentralisation
 Avoid trying to do too much too quickly
 Incorporate the various dimensions (political,
administrative, fiscal) throughout the process
 Prioritise reforms with the greatest possibility of
achieving results in a relatively short period of
time
 Transfer powers before capacity building
 Provide modest funding to be used in a
discretionary manner (‘learning by doing’)
 Create incentives for improved performance
Capacity development approach
To ensure sustainability, strengthening of
capacities needs to be considered, as well as how
capacity building should occur:
 How feasible is an intervention?
 How sustainable will it be after the support is
ended?
 What are the options for coordination and
management by partners?
 How can we strengthen capacities?
The UNDP Approach to Capacity
Development
Step 1:
Engage
stakeholders
on capacity
development
Step 5:
Evaluate
capacity
development
Step 4:
Implement a
capacity
development
response
Capacity
Development
Process
Step 2:
Assess
capacity assets
and needs
Step 3:
Formulate a
capacity
development
response
Levels of capacity building
Capacity needs to be build at three levels:
• System level (enabling environment)
• Organisational level
• Individual level
It’s crucial to understand the relationship
between all three levels in designing a
coherent support strategy for
decentralisation.
Capacity development and
sustainability concerns
An OECD-DAC evaluation points out that
there seems to be great potential for
ensuring longer-term sustainability through:
• Better institutionalisation or up-scaling of
pilot programmes.
• Formulation of exit and/or mainstreaming
strategies in every support programme from
the initial stages.
Small group exercise
• Try to come up with examples of decentralisation
strategies that - in your opinion – were successful
• Why do you think were they successful?
• Make a list of lessons learnt from these examples,
try to group the examples according to four steps
of the identification process:
• Focus
• Entry points
• Sequencing of support
• Capacity development approach
(ca. 25 minutes)
• One group member presents the findings in the
plenary
Overall recommendations for
managing the identification process
 Invest time to produce clear terms of reference
 Promote and facilitate a multi-actor dialogue
throughout the process
 Make sure that government stays onboard
 Mobilise existing sources of local knowledge
 Coach the consultants
 Be transparent and communicate about outputs
Participants’ experiences
Lessons learnt on harmonisation
Harmonisation of responses
The DPWG-LGDs country specific guiding
Principles call for DPs to:
“Build on and strengthen nationally driven
DLG policies with harmonised strategic
responses from DP according to different
degrees of and commitment to
decentralisation and local governance”.
Country typologies (1)
 Actively decentralising countries: DPs are
invited to fully align their strategies,
approaches, funding instruments and
procedures to the national framework.
 Advanced intermediate decentralising
countries: Stimulate the emergence and
consolidation of a coherent national policy
on decentralisation while providing support
for policy experiments with selected
national and local stakeholders
Country typologies (2)
 Early intermediate decentralising countries: response
strategies will have to build on existing windows of
opportunities (in sectors or at local level) and support
drivers of change
 Non-decentralising / (post-) conflict countries: Focus
first on creating a basic legitimacy (i.e. rule of law) and
invest then in shaping the pre-conditions for a
decentralisation vision through a variety of entry
points and instruments. It is of critical importance to
act jointly as donor community.
Steps to be considered for counties
with limited commitment
 If you cannot align, then harmonise
 Although only few advances may be made
within the five critical pillars for
decentralisation, these few advances could
be used as the first “building blocks” for
harmonisation
Steps to be considered for countries
with stronger commitment
 One or more roundtables should be
promoted for dialogue
 A road map for alignment and
harmonisation should be agreed
 The principles from the General Guiding
Principles on alignment and harmonisation
should be applied.
General steps to be considered
 Start up a dialogue with stakeholders without waiting until





all DPs commit themselves to A&H
Evaluate periodically the progress made by DPs toward
harmonisation
Require each DP to draw up A&H strategies including
coordination between general DLG support and sector
programme support
Harmonise support to civil society participating in DLG
processes
Try to develop a common technical assistance plan
Establishment of joint monitoring, evaluation and audit
mechanisms a key issue
Participants experiences with
sequencing of support modalities
How applicable are the country typologies in
practice:
 To what extent does the case follow the response
strategies suggested?
 What was the rationale behind the choice for this
sequencing of support modalities?
 To what extent has the support reinforced and
used national procedures and mechanisms?
DP Alignment to country strategies
 Alignment to non-coherent national strategies can
lead to conflicting and contradictory support
strategies, therefore integration of decentralisation
into overall national strategies essential.
 Gradual alignment to key elements of a national
framework can facilitate the development of a
comprehensive overall support programme with joint
funding mechanisms.
 Overall strategy for development cooperation and
partnerships (Joint Assistance Strategy) will facilitate
alignment and harmonisation
DP Coordination Mechanisms
 Make coordination more comprehensive horizontally
and vertically to be able to address all dimensions
relevant to the DC process in a coherent manner
 Ensure government commitment for its leadership role
for the DP coordination
 Set-up road map with specific milestones for
enhancing coordination and harmonisation within the
DP group, moving towards joint missions, common
funding mechanisms and partnership and
representation arrangements.
Challenges of harmonisation
and alignment
OECD-DAC (2004):
• It is widely recognised that development partner
coordination is crucial for cost-effective utilisation of
scarce resources.
• Changing the traditional way of operating has proved
to be a challenging and lengthy process.
• DPs and partner governments should examine
obstacles to effective DP co-ordination and endeavour
to make sure that DP programmes in this field are
better co-ordinated.
Fishbowl discussion
When designing support strategies, what are
the obstacles for effective donor
harmonisation and alignment:
• within development partners’
organisations?
• within partner governments?
And (how) can these be altered?
Fishbowl discussion: process
• Circle of five chairs, four occupied, one empty
• The four “fish” briefly present their (organisations)
experiences and view on the statement
• Any member of the audience can, at any time,
occupy the empty chair
• When this happens, an existing member of the
fishbowl must voluntarily leave
• The discussion continues with participants
frequently entering and leaving the fishbowl