Development aid and the ownership principle in development policy

Abstract

The importance of 'country ownership' of development policy became a vital issue for the effectiveness of foreign assistance in the post-Cold War era. There has been a landmark shift in the posture of traditional donors in aid partnerships and several attempts made to strengthen national ownership of recipient countries in development policy. With the adoption of MDGs, the international community expressed its deep commitment to maintaining a systematic approach to enhancing recipient country ownership in development cooperation. As the UN SDGs advocate for a whole-of-society approach, the ambit of policy-ownership has instead expanded beyond development aid. This chapter primarily seeks to serve the following purposes: first, to provide the context of the need for ownership over the development policy of the aid recipient countries under aid partnership; second, to present an overview of efforts towards mainstreaming ownership principle in development partnership and policy; third, to offer a critical analysis of the contemporary experiences to make policy-ownership a reality.