Donor harmonization: first steps to Paris and Accra
17 Dec 2010
On 23 and 24 September, Nuffic and its Norwegian sister organization SIU jointly held a seminar in The Hague for other sister organizations. At the seminar they discussed the advantages of donor harmonization in the education and research programmes they manage in a development cooperation framework.
Donor harmonization is recommended in the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda and it is a need felt by the participating organizations.
Participants
The group consisted of representatives from organizations from Austria (OAD), Belgium (VLIR and CIUF-CUD), Denmark (DANIDA-Fellowships Centre), Finland (CIMO), Germany (DAAD), Ireland (ICOS and Irish-African Partnership for Research), Spain (Associació Catalana d’universitats públiques) and the Netherlands (NWO/WOTRO and Nuffic).
A number of donors also joined the seminar, including Norway's NORAD, the Austrian Development Agency, Irish Aid, the Agencia Española de Cooperación International para el Desarollo and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some organizations were unable to attend the seminar, but indicated that they were interested in joining the donor harmonization group.
The seminar was opened by Mr Bram van Ojik, Director of the Social Development Department (DSO) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs which funds the NFP, NPT and NICHE programmes. Van Ojik explained the importance of donor harmonization and formulated the required strategy as set out in the Paris Declaration and Accra Agenda.
A new platform
Among other things, the seminar participants agreed to set up a platform of organizations which administer education and research programmes related to development cooperation. It is to be a platform for intensive practice-oriented cooperation, and information exchange on programmes and activities. It will allow participating organizations and their staff to harmonize programmes and activities.
What’s next?
Some organizations offered to work out a number of practical and thematic topics and questions to be further discussed at the next meeting, to be held in Bergen, Norway, in spring 2011.
These include:
- What is the platform’s approach to organizations that are not (yet) represented?
- How and when will an overview of the various programmes become available?
- How will cross-cutting themes such as gender and the labour market be addressed?
- What is the best road to programme alignment?
- How can we best learn from each other’s experiences?
- Trends in development and cooperation.
Virtual meeting place
Finally, Nuffic will facilitate the creation of a virtual community for the platform where participating organizations can share contact details, programme updates, reports, documents and useful web links.
