Harmonisation & democratisation / Comment
Country ownership and donor harmonisation: the Vietnamese experience
20/11/2007 By Le Thanh Forsberg
Donor harmonisation and aid effectiveness top the agenda of the government and the donor community in Vietnam, a pilot country for the Paris Declaration [see full text of the agreement] as well as for new aid modalities and policy dialogue mechanisms.
The Vietnamese government has adopted strong ownership, making it very attractive for donors to advance towards deeper harmonisation and alignment.
However, this document argues that there are several challenges left, that may be relevant for the future of the aid effectiveness agenda as a whole.
Firstly, it comments on how the concept of ownership in the context of a domestic political environment of a recipient country should be defined. Secondly, the document provides some key institutional determinants of strong ownership and the domestic institutional arrangements in which aid relationships exist.
Finally, it draws some conclusions on the importance of donor diversity in the case of Vietnam as well as implications on donor harmonization.
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Keywords
Aid effectiveness Donors Harmonization Political economy South East Asia VietnamRelated publications
- Donor harmonisation: between effectiveness and democratisation. Theoretical framework and methodology for country case studies
- Nicaragua: a rude awakening for the Paris Declaration
- Vietnam's laboratory on donor harmonisation: between effectiveness and democratisation
Bio author: Le Thanh Forsberg
Dr. Le Thanh Forsberg is a Research Associate at the European Institute of Japanese Studies, Stockholm School of Economics, with a Ph.D. degree in institutional and development economics from Sweden.
