Programme-Based Approaches

Development assistance is increasingly moving towards Programme-Based Approaches (PBAs), where development cooperation agencies support broader national policies at the sector, theme or country level, and seek to harmonise and align their support for locally owned development programmes (at national and sub-national levels). Whereas prior approaches to development cooperation have often had the effect of undermining host-country institutional capacities, PBAs are expected to have a number of positive effects, by:

1. strengthening host-country ownership
   
2. working through - rather than around - local institutional structures
   
3. shifting attention to more strategic issues, including policy and institutional reforms, rather than focussing on details of (project) implementation

The Africa Forum on Rural Development adopts the i nternational definition of a programme-based approach: “ A PBA is a way of engaging in development cooperation based on the principle of coordinated support for a locally owned programme of development based on four key principles: (i) Leadership by the host country or organisation (ii) A single programme and budget framework (iii) Donor coordination and harmonization of procedures; and (iv) Efforts to increase the use of local procedures over time with regard to programme design and implementation, financial management, monitoring and evaluation (source:…)