Local Ownership

Abstract

Abstract The idea of ownership in development is hardly new, but since the mid-1990s local ownership and its variants have taken on particular prominence in the publications of bilateral and multilateral development agencies. Well-known examples provide reference points for ongoing debates. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in its seminal 1996 statement ‘Shaping the 21st Century’, asserted that sustainable development ‘must be locally owned’ and that development cooperation has to be shifted to a partnership model, where donors’ programmes and activities operate within ‘locally owned development strategies’ (DAC, 1996). Donors should ‘respect and encourage strong local commitment, participation, capacity development and ownership’ (DAC, 1996: 14). The DAC linked these positions to a series of specific targets for poverty reduction, which formed the basis of the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000.