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Page 4 of 4
Mushtaq Ahmed, Ph.D.
Economic Policy Advisor/Agriculture, Economic Development Division, Policy Branch, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Ottawa
“Too many PRSPs read like wish lists… Where is the applicability?”
Nater: You’ve cited CIDA’s crop diversification scheme for Bangladesh as an example of successful donor planning. But donors are now pushing developing countries to develop their own plans.
Ahmed: I think countries themselves now realise that they are partners in development and that they must shoulder this process. But one problem with national planning processes is that, despite much consultation with donors, there are too many PRSPs that still read like wish-lists. Where is the realistic assessment of fundamental needs? Where is the applicability? Another problem is the insistence on PRSPs is robbing many countries of what few planning resources they have. Lots of multilateral agreements with donors now need their attention. The capacity for planning has been eroded and diffused because of the new focus on PRSPs and mid-term budgetary reporting requirements. All this impinges on the ability of some countries to demonstrate coherent direction. They simply lack the manpower to do all these jobs.
At the same time, many bureaucracies are overstaffed.
Yes, but not always with the right people. Capacity is a major issue. Some of the best brains are lost to emigration or private industry. Elsewhere, poor manpower management is vitiating proper identification of talent and implementation of policy. The value of trained and capable civil servants in many developing-country ministries is not sufficiently recognised and their expertise is not properly extracted. They are just shuffled around and often wind up doing clerical, routine tasks. At the same time, the incentives are often lacking, as well. For example, promotion to a higher administrative cadre is often much more rewarding, career-wise, than remaining a specialist. As a result, some of the best and the brightest wind up in senior-level offices approving budgets. Their training, very often, is lost.
“The value of trained and capable civil servants in many developing countries ministries people is not recognised and their expertise is not properly extracted. They often wind up doing clerical, routine tasks.”
So the blame is pretty equally shared?
We’re seeing steady improvement on both sides. As for the donors, I think we’ve largely stopped expecting always to have our own way, plant our own flags and develop our own separate development philosophies. We’re becoming more predictable for our partners, as well. Donors did a lot of flip-flopping in the past: “Do it this way! No, do it that way!” Now, on the whole, we’re determined to be more consistent. As a group, we’re realising that our task is strengthen national capacities, join efforts with other donors to promote country-led development, and stay the course. That, in essence, is harmonisation and alignment.
And all along the way, we need to take stock and evaluate. We’ve learned that there are no signed-and-sealed ways of doing things in rural development. We have to continually share knowledge on what works and what doesn’t, both with other donors, with partner-governments in developing countries and all development actors. The Global Donor Platform is doing its part to help this process along. It’s plugging away at in-country H&A facilitation, it’s doing some important research on PRSPs and SWAps, it’s worked out its top ten Hot Topics, it’s developed the Joint Donor Concept for Rural Development, it’s playing an important role in the production of World Development Report 2008 and it’s working hard to support agricultural development policy in Africa through NEPAD. I think this is the right way to go.
 More on the Canadian International Development Agency
 More on CIDA’s agricultural policy
Photos: Shanila Nuzaiya Ahmed
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