The pooling of technical assistance: an overview based on field experience in six African countries

Study on the pooling of funds to finance technical assistance in the context of sector-wide approaches. The overall aims is to harmonise procedures so as to reduce the fragmentation of externally funded development activities as well as theconsiderable administrative burden they place on developing country administrations.It looks at issues of: To what extent is pooling a useful tool for harmonising donor procedures? When and where is it most effective? Does technical assistance (TA) pooling provide a mechanism to enhance national ownership? What are the capacity and procedural constraints faced by both developing countries and IDAs in using pooling more extensively? To what extent is TA pooling contributing to changes in aid management practices, in particular the relationship between governments and the international development community and the practices of that community? It concludes that that pooling of TA is still in its infancy, although there are some modest but promising signs in several of the countries. The move to pooling is part of a broader change in the design and management of international development cooperation, at the core of which is the emphasis on country ownership and control. In the years ahead the challenge will be to encourage more pooling that promotes such ownership and control, while at the same time maintaining quality programming and effective implementation. At the same time, pooling of TA can not be de-linked from structural reform efforts (e.g. public sector reforms). It also can only be implemented in an environment with adequate capacity to direct the process, or where the necessary capacities can be created within a reasonably short time span, e.g. through special incentive schemes to bring capable persons into the civil service. [author]