Capacity building sector specific
Changing aid delivery and the environment: can general budget support be used to meet environmental objectives?
Can donors supporrt environmental objectives General Budget Support?
Authors:
N. Bird; L. Cabral
Publisher:
Overseas Development Institute, London, 2007
This paper examines how environmental objectives are pursued by donors in a context where aid delivery mechanisms are changing. It cites General Budget Support (GBS) as an example of an increasingly important aid instrument that emphasises domestic commitment to achieve better environmental outcomes. Examples of the use of GBS are given for the cases of environmental mainstreaming in Mozambique and donor harmonisation in Ghana.
Five key areas are highlighted which require varying blends of aid instruments for donor intervention:
- assisting with the clarification of mandates and institutional structures governing the environment
- promoting multi-stakeholder debate
- building analytical capacity within environmental agencies
- generating political incentives for generating better environmental outcomes
- strengthening country representation in international environmental processes.
The paper concludes that further research is needed in the following areas to gain a better understanding of how donor assistance can best pursue environmental objectives:
- more detailed in-country diagnostic studies that analyse the nature of environmental problems which have an impact on the poor
- experience of Sector Working Groups should be documented and lessons learned of emerging best practice for these important multi-stakeholder fora
- work out the sort of donor in-house capacity that is required to address the policy dialogue and influencing agenda that is part of the new aid system.
