The Whole-of-Government Approach in Austrian Development Policy: Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis



Contract partner: Syspons GmbH Country: Entwicklungsländer, unspezifisch Funding amount: € 58.369,50 Project start: 28.01.2021 End: 10.12.2021

Short Description:

Overall goal


The main objectives of the review are:

1. to present systematic, solid evaluative and other evidence of WGA implementation;

2. to identify facilitating and hindering factors for WGA implementation and present good practice examples;

3. to develop actionable recommendations for the further development of WGA and its implementation in Austrian development policy, both based on the existing setting and in the medium to long term.


Expected results


It is expected that this review will contribute to an enhanced WGA in terms of process and content of next 3YP of Austrian Development Policy (2022-2024), the development of which will start in early 2021. Thereby it will also contribute to the implementation of WGA related recommendations of the 2020 OECD DAC Peer Review Austria. It is hoped that it will also be of use for the Federal Government and Parliament in reflecting on the implementation of the WGA approach to date and defining the way forward.


Target group / Beneficiaries


The primary users of the results of this review are the MFA and the ADC Coordination Offices (CO) in the partner countries. Secondary users will be the other Austrian ODA actors within the framework of their role in Austrian development policy.


Activities


- Structured literature review: includes strategic, policy and operational documents as well as academic and other studies relevant to Austrian development policy (e.g. 3YP, ADC Country and Regional Strategies, Austrian Coordination Office reports.

- Review of evaluative evidence: ADC Strategic evaluations (Terms of Reference, evaluation reports, Management Response), OECD DAC Peer Reviews, ADA institutional evaluation.

- Selected key informant interviews (KII) and/or Focus Group Discussion (FGD), in a first step to explore the issue on specific issues and in a second step to deepen knowledge on specific key issues identified during the review process;

- Concluding stakeholder workshop to refine forward looking and actionable recommendations.


Context


Policy coherence and Whole-of Government Approaches (WGA) are concepts that go beyond the realm of development cooperation. They are inter-related, sometimes used without clear distinction, with policy coherence arguably being the broader concept and overall approach. Policy coherence, both between aid policy and other policies as well as within aid policy, has been an important issue on the agenda of national, regional and international institutions and organisations for many years.The commitment to coherence in Austrian development policy stems from the 2002 Federal Act on Development Co-operation (thereinafter the Act), amended in 2003, which provides the legal basis for Austrian development co-operation. The Whole-of-Government Approach (WGA) was first mentioned in the 2013-2015 Three Year Programme on Austrian Development Policy. Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) is commissioning a first comprehensive review of evaluative and other documentary evidence on the implementation of the Whole-of-Government-Approach (WGA) in Austrian development policy. This review will focus on measures and activities with regard to WGA implementation in the context of Austrian development policy and within this framework on two levels, implementation in Austria and in ADC partner countries. It will cover the time frame 2013 (when the term was first used in the 3YP of Austrian Development Policy) to end 2020.

project number 2817-01/2020
source of funding OEZA
sector Staatsführung & Zivilgesellschaft, allgemein
tied 0
modality Other technical assistance
marker
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.
Back to list