• Donor assessments

Donor assessments

This review compares and contrasts different donor approaches to conducting Power and Drivers of Change (DOC) analysis, and looks at what is being done with the findings, in order to learn lessons for future work. It draws mainly on studies conducted in four countries – Bangladesh, Bolivia, Kenya, and Tanzania – as basis for deriving findings and recommendations for this type of work.

The review finds that in most cases country offices initiated the Power and DOC studies to assist with the design of country-level strategies and programmes. For Sida and DFID, country offices have taken the lead, with varying back-up and guidance from headquarters. By contrast, the impetus for World Bank Institutional and Governance Reviews (IGRs), and for political analysis in Africa, has come from headquarters, and ownership by country offices has been more variable.

The studies have been used to promote internal learning rather than dialogue with external stakeholders. The studies have mainly been used by those who commissioned them. The knowledge generated, as well as the overall conceptual approach, is becoming institutionalised.

The studies are also beginning to influence donor policy, by emphasising the importance of political factors in shaping development outcomes, and in highlighting political and institutional issues in programme design across sectors.

Power and DOC analysis is potentially challenging, because it questions fundamental assumptions about how development happens. It reinforces the need for harmonisation of donor approaches to be based on rigorous and honest debate about different perspectives. There are signs that this is already beginning to happen through active dissemination and jointly commissioned studies.

A number of key challenges and opportunities emerge from this review:

• overcoming differences in understanding that are implicit in the different approaches being taken by donors: there is a major opportunity for constructive dialogue and joint learning, both among donors, and between donors and development partners through more active dissemination and engagement;
• moving from high-level analysis to operational strategies and programmes: closer attention to operational implications in the design of the studies and more explicit consideration of potential programmatic outcomes would strengthen their validity and usage;
• reconciling tensions between longer-term political processes and incremental change with short-term spending and accountability imperatives: demonstrating how such analysis contributes to improve aid effectiveness and harmonisation offers a potentially fruitful way forward.

• Full text of document
• Publisher details
• Send to a friend