Joined work on "Quality standards and good practice in support to country-owned CD processes"?

[Thomas Theisohn]

Dear colleagues,

As we are settling back in after the Washington meetings I want to get back on an idea of a work stream of joined work that we could undertake together. I had a chance to discuss this idea with some of you bilaterally and it seems there would be support for a more concerted effort for this. This is an invitation to join forces. Ideas and engagement are welcome. I have set up a working group on this site where those interested could converge and exchange.

The CD learning week in Turin is a next opportunity to converge and the topic that we discussed in a mall group "Alignment and using country systems, quality standards for supporting CD" actually nicely ties in with a more strategic perspective on coming out with a solid guidance note, for instance, a Good Practice Paper to eventually be adopted by the OECD/DAC and with helpful recommendations for the 2011 HLF.

In a nutshell the learning journey could go as follow:

Phase 1: Framing the issue and sharpening worlplan at Turin Learning week
- Starting now/September 2010: Use the dynamic for the Turin event to prepare the topic above be forming a working group, developing a resource corner, and framing the issues.
- 7-11 Nov 2009: At the Turin learning week itself we could envisage a series of intense workshops to discuss the issues and shape a strategy to develop some solid guidance to feed eventually into the HLF and a guidance note

Phase 2: Knowledge Fair, country level reflection and Colombia HLF May 2009
Leading up to the Colombia HLF planned for May 2009 conduct
a) a virtual knowledge fair to leverage experiences on quality support to CD. We are currently working on a methodology with the Impact Alliance that will also serve for the November forum and other conferences. We are applying this already for a knowledge fair that will feed into the UNDP organized HLF on “Capacity IS Development” 9-11 November 2009. Happy to share more eventually
b) a number of country level learning events to reflect on the issue of CD support, (incl.South-South, training & alternatives, learning, TC, ...) The importance of having such reflecting with the stakeholders on country level was also underlined in the video-link mentioned above.
At the Colombia HLF in May 2010, LenCD could then offer a physical knowledge fair around "Quality standards and good practice in support to country-owned CD processes". We are in contact with our Colombia colleagues to see what makes most sense.

Phase 3: Draft guidance note and further vetting and validation
- mid 2010 we should be able to distill a first draft of a guidance note that could be vetted through virtual and physical processes, including the 2010 and 2011 WBI/InWent meetings and ILO Learning weeks, which are planned as annual events.


Phase 4: Recommendation for 2011 HLF and OECD/DAC good practice paper
By early 2011 we should then have a fairly solid draft of a Good Practice Paper that may eventually get adopted by the OECD/DAC as one way to get more concrete on the 2006 guidance.
- For the HLF 2011 preparation there should then equally be some concrete recommendations that can move the commitments onto a higher level.

This is the proposal in a nutshell. From LenCD side we would be happy to collaborate with those interest and help facilitate a legitimate process leading to some solid good practice guidance in a couple of years.

If there are a hand full of agencies that are interested to join forces this should become an exciting joined work stream.

Looking forward to here from you. Thomas

[Silvia Guizzardi]

Greetings to all,

And thanks to Thomas to post this. I would like to re-emphasise our support and willingness to actively contribute to this initiative.

As DAC Secretariat, we would be strongly interested in contributing to the consolidation and dissemination of good practices in the specific area of alignment with country systems for supporting CD, and, more general, in training and learning programmes for CD. As mentioned in Washington, training – as a component of technical cooperation - constitutes a central aspect DAC current policy debate and work on capacity development. We believe there is a strong opportunity for for immediate joint action and agreement on good practice in the area of training – bringing our and other South and North partners’ energies together to learn from and share experience.

I also agree with Thomas that the event in Turin indeed offers us an opportunity to join and focus forces. This could then lead to the development of a good practice note we would help disseminate among donors and, through our Southern partners – such as CD Alliance – among Southern leaders – and eventually find his way towards the 2011 HLF.

Looking forward to further concrete collaboration on this topic

Silvia

Silvia GUIZZARDI - Policy Analyst
Capacity Development Team
Development Co-operation Directorate
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
2, rue André-Pascal • 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France
Tel: [phone]
[e-mail]

[Emmanuel Asomba]

I'm not gonna be physically on the ground (over there), however, I would like very much to bring my two cents worth of inputs to keep the ball rolling.