Through a highly competitive selection process, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) kicked off an 11-month-long research project titled Exploring “Development Effectiveness” at the Sectoral Level in Southern Countries with financial backing from the European Commission and its services in January 2022.

The project is premised on the understanding that in the last decade, the ‘effective’ development policy discourse has evolved alongside significant transformations in the global socio-economic environment. Beginning with a decline in the volume of official development assistance (ODA) disbursed, its declining concessionality, and the changing demographic of ‘recipient’ countries.

As such, the research project recognises that four Principles, i.e., ‘ownership’, ‘inclusive partnerships, ‘focus on sustainable results’ and ‘transparency and mutual accountability’, have been designed by Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) for the governance of international development cooperation. Accordingly, this research project explores the relationship between ‘effective’ development cooperation principles and sectoral development outcomes from two vantage points.

First, what external factors have facilitated or constrained the positive application of the development effectiveness cooperation principles at the sectoral level?

Second, what are the country-specific factors that influence whether the application of the development cooperation principles leads to improvements in performance in delivering sector development targets?

In view of this, CPD is leading the research project in partnership with the Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE), Peru — as the Secretariat of Southern Voice—to examine the ‘Impact of Development Effectiveness’ at the sectoral level. In this project, CPD and GRADE lead six illustrative case studies, two each in the agriculture, education and social protection sectors of Bangladesh, El Salvador, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.

Preparation of four thematic papers on broader themes underpinning the effectiveness of development cooperation at the sectoral level has also been in-built into the research project design. A synthesis of the findings emerging from the case studies and thematic papers is expected to be presented at the 3^rd GPEDC high-level meeting on development effectiveness in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2022.

This research project is led by Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, CPD. Other team members include Mr Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, CPD and Ms Najeeba Mohammed Altaf, Research Associate, CPD