Decentralized Official Development Assistance and its Specificity: The Case of the Basque Country

Abstract

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is undergoing a process of debate. The setting of the Millennium Development Goals brought a significant boost in the amounts of money spent on ODA, which was later reinforced by the Monterrey Conference (2002), where efforts were made to redefine the role of ODA compared to other growing private flows, setting a new agenda to finance the development. The discussion on aid effectiveness and the Paris Declaration (2005) seemed to add opportunities for rethinking ODA, and giving it a new meaning.However, during the first decade of the 21st century, and especially with the advent of the global crisis, we face a picture of ODA tendency towards stagnation, with serious doubts about the fulfilment of its commitments, and without a clear definition of its role.In this context, the rise of decentralized co-operation driven by local governments in some European countries is a poorly understood phenomenon, which may offer alternatives to redefine the role of ODA, but has not yet clearly defined its specificity and potential.