Under the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation of 2011, developing countries and donors have pledged to promote the ownership of partner countries in development and reform processes: More than before, the countries of the South and East are to plan their development paths themselves. They must play a clear leadership role and bear responsibility for drafting their development plans. At the same time, they are postulated to continue to meet the commitments made and to set up and further develop their national capacities.

This goal is also reflected in the financial instruments of bilateral cooperation: The priority countries of Austrian Development Cooperation are assisted with general budget support (e.g. Mozambique) and sectoral finance (e.g. Uganda). Moreover, together with other donors Austria cofinances national, regional or local programmes via multi-donor pooled funds.

Projects can also be implemented by national institutions or administrative divisions of the partner governments themselves. These national execution arrangements make use of the institutions and procedures in partner countries.

The field offices of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) give professional cooperative support to partners in implementing country strategies. Besides cooperation with governments and other donors, ADA also supports development organisations (NGOs, cooperatives and umbrella organisations, etc) in executing selected programmes and projects as part of country and regional strategies.

PROJECT PLANNING AND APPLICATION

When proposing a project/programme as part of the country and regional strategies, account must be taken of the following:
- Does the target country or region comply with the priorities of Austrian Development Cooperation? Information on the priority countries and key regions of Austrian Development Cooperation is available here.
- Does the planned project make a contribution to the related country or regional strategy? Information on country and regional strategies is available here.
- A grant application form must be prepared and submitted to the competent ADA field office. A list of offices is available here. If no field office is responsible, the grant application form must be sent directly to ADA head office in Vienna.
After response from ADA, a complete project proposal in the format of a project document may be drawn up using the project cycle management method.
- The complete project document is then submitted to the competent field office or head office.

Information on the protection of personal data.

PROJECT DOCUMENT

The project document including all annexes is a major component of the project financing contract:

BANK DETAILS HAVE TO BE PROVIDED SEPARATELY USING ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FORMS:

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND THEMATIC ORIENTATION

For guidance on the consideration and integration of environmental, gender and social standards during the planning and project design phase, please consult ADA's checklist for Environmental, Gender and Social Standards.

In addition to the list, specific ADC quality criteria apply, depending on theme and sector. Those are described in the relevant ADC publications (e.g. policy documents, strategic guidelines and manuals).

Expert consultant commissions can be planned for in the project. Terms of Reference must be drafted for this and a specification profile for the relevant technical expert advice. Terms of Reference must be appended to the project proposal as annex. More on this here.

In budgeting, the contents of technical expert advice (under direct costs) must be demarcated from more general tasks of project administration (under indirect costs). More information on this is available in the guideline on project administration costs.

The PCM Glossary is an aid for quality assurance in the planning process. All concepts of Logframe planning and PCM are described in brief in German and English.

In budgeting, account must be taken of the following:

     

  • Payment of travelling and accommodation expenses

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  • Project administration costs in the budget cannot exceed ten per cent of the costs of a development project and cover all substantive, administrative and organisational activities of a funding recipient for project cycle management, such as project planning, project steering, reporting, communication with ADA, preparation and follow-up of evaluations (Details and calculation of project administration costs).

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  • Correct calculation of indirect costs (Details and calculation of project administration costs)

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Information and aids for project execution are available here.