Aid Policy

Since the 1990s there has been significant progress in the planning and delivery of development assistance reflecting both international experience and the lessons from research. This has involved an increased focus on ownership and on new aid instruments (from sector programmes to direct budget support and innovative financing mechanisms). This process has been given a strong boost and a more coherent structure of objectives and accountability through international agreements culminating in the Paris Declaration of 2005. Progress under the Paris Declaration was reviewed in September 2008 at the Third High Level Forum in Accra. At the same time, there has been an increasing concern with achieving effective engagement in fragile states and with addressing problems in the international aid architecture such as the overall pattern of aid allocation and the emergence into a significant international presence of new aid donors such as China.

OPM has contributed to this progress through making influential contributions to the policy debate and providing practical support to the implementation of improved aid arrangements. OPM brings to these issues a strong understanding of the implications of research on aid effectiveness, knowledge of sectoral and cross-cutting policy issues, and deep experience of the practical and political economy issues facing development agencies and governments receiving aid. This has been applied through policy research, strategic reviews and aid evaluation.

OPM's experience focuses on the following areas:

- Aid Effectiveness: from Paris to Accra

- Aid Strategies and Policies

- International Engagement in Fragile States