The status of sector wide approaches: a framework paper

Paper is an outcome of the informal Like-Minded Donor Working Group on the Implementation of Sector Wide Approaches (SWA). It sets out some of the significant challenges that are facing SWA on the basis of a survey of a wide range of country experiences in Africa and Asia.The Sector Wide Approach (SWA) is a method of working between government and donors which aims at adopting common approaches across a sector. It includes all significant funding for sector support, single sector policy and expenditure programmes under government leadership. The objective is to progress towards relying on government to disburse and account for all funds. A number of key challenges arise in the adoption of this approach including:Models in which Government leads, or where change agents within Government are allied to donors, appear to work better. Where the government is less strong, questions remain as to how the process of initiation and long-term management can be addressedThe behavioural relations between Government and donors have to be addressed. Donors need to adapt to the rhythm of Government decision-making, and ensure they leave space and time to build domestic consensusActivities and accountability have to be formalised, with Government taking the lead role and with the donor formally pledging agreed supportDetermining appropriate conditionally between macro and sector levels is particularly problematic. A balance has to be struck between reasonable assurance of budget support and effective redress in cases of non-complianceManagement of SWAs through parallel structures raises issues of ownership and sustainability. But the question of where the donor fits in, especially with regard to the budget Support System, has to be resolved without opening a potential by-pass of the Ministry of FinanceThe needs of the poor and participatory processes have to be integrated into SWA planningInnovation and piloting need to be maintained throughout the process. Furthermore, the question of whether a clear vision has to be pursued from the start, with or without the governments' support, has to be confrontedQuestions remain as to whether sufficient knowledge of the domestic political constraints and decision-making processes be fed into the donor's vision?There is a tension between the need to tackle immediate capacity problems to enable the programme to be implemented, and the much longer time scale of civil service reform addressing the underlying problem.The practical aspects of the relationships between Government and donors matter. There is a need to establish clear roles and responsibilities. Evidence suggests that while there has been a lot of practical experiments which can be drawn on, single experiences cannot necessarily be replicated in different settings. [abstract from Livelihoods Connect]