Latest Documents

Addressing 21st century development challenges requires investments in innovation, including the use of new approaches and technologies. Currently, many development organisations prioritise investments in isolated innovation pilots that leverage a specific approach or technology rather than pursuing a strategic approach to expand the organisation’s toolbox with innovations that have proven their comparative advantage over what is currently used. This Working Paper addresses this challenge of adopting innovations. How can development organisations institutionalise a new way of working, bringing what was once novel to the core of how business is done? Analysing successful adoption efforts across five DAC agencies, the paper lays out a proposed process for the adoption of innovations. The paper features five case-studies and concludes with a set of lessons and recommendations for policy makers on innovation management generally, and adoption of innovation in particular.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. Reviews seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of members’ development co-operation, highlighting good practices and recommending improvements. Iceland adopts a partner-led, poverty-focused and long-term approach with its three partner countries and relies on multilateral partners to complement its bilateral portfolio. Iceland successfully advances gender equality and new framework agreements with civil society have strengthened partnerships. This peer review provides a set of recommendations for Iceland to remain focused in its 2024-28 development co-operation policy and forthcoming environment and climate strategy, build on recent official development assistance (ODA) volume increases to develop a concrete roadmap towards 0.7% GNI as ODA, and adopt a strategic workforce plan to address human resource constraints. It recommends that GRÓ training programmes prioritise strengthening partner institutions’ capacity and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs works to ensure additionality and sustainability when engaging with the private sector.

This publication responds to the need for practical guidance for evaluators, evaluation managers, and programme staff to incorporate a human rights and gender equality lens into the six OECD evaluation criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. It aims to support evaluators and evaluation managers in the design, management and delivery of credible and useful evaluations that assess whether and how interventions contribute to realising human rights and gender equality – both, interventions with explicit human rights related objectives and those without. It also provides broader guidance to programme staff in applying the six criteria with a human rights and gender equality lens at the outset of an intervention and addresses the main considerations and challenges in doing so.

The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) conducts peer reviews of individual members once every five to six years. Reviews seek to improve the quality and effectiveness of members’ development co-operation, highlighting good practices and recommending improvements. New Zealand is a valued partner in the Pacific where most of its official development assistance (ODA) is delivered. Led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, its commitment to national and regional ownership, efforts to draw on indigenous knowledge and values, and scaled-up climate finance commitments attest to New Zealand’s engagement and relevance. This peer review provides recommendations for New Zealand to make the most of the closer integration of foreign and development policy in the Pacific, reinforce human resources, enable efficient and effective decision making, strengthen transparency, build public understanding of development, foster the linkages between climate-related investments and other priorities, and establish a plan for increasing ODA to deliver on New Zealand’s strategic goals.

OECD countries continue to face persistent gender inequalities in social and economic life. Young women often reach higher levels of education than young men, but remain under-represented in fields with the most lucrative careers. Women spend more time on unpaid work, face a strong motherhood penalty, encounter barriers to entrepreneurship and fare worse in labour markets overall. They are also under-represented in politics and leadership positions in public employment. These elements permeate many policy areas and economic sectors – from international trade and development assistance to energy and the environment – in which policy often lacks a strong gender focus. Violence against women, the most abhorrent manifestation of gender inequality, remains a global crisis. This publication analyses developments and policies for gender equality, such as gender mainstreaming and budgeting, reforms to increase fathers’ involvement in parental leave and childcare, pay transparency initiatives to tackle gender pay gaps, and systems to address gender-based violence. It extends the perspective on gender equality to include foreign direct investment, nuclear energy and transport. Advancing gender equality is not just a moral imperative; in times of rapidly ageing populations, low fertility and multiple crises, it will strengthen future gender-equal economic growth and social cohesion.

This toolkit offers practical guidance to adherents to the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Assistance. It helps them implement the Recommendation’s provisions pertaining to strengthening local ownership and partner-country civil society as independent development and humanitarian actors.

This paper looks at the implications for development co-operation of increased spending on global public goods and 'bads'. It explores shifts in the narratives and financing priorities of development co-operation providers over recent decades and puts forward key considerations for them on their future role.