Accompanying measures to general budget support in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

As a financial contribution harmonised among donors, general budget support facilitates the implementation of national poverty reduction strategies and promotes governance in partner countries. Apart from this financial contribution to the national budget, the standard budget support package also involves intensive policy dialogue between donors and the partner government, as well as accompanying measures to strengthen country systems. In the portfolio of German development cooperation, accompanying measures to budget support have gained in importance. This evaluation was designed to examine if, how and under which circumstances accompanying measures to budget support can contribute to the objectives of budget support. Questions on the relevance, effectiveness and success factors of these measures were answered based on a literature study, a portfolio analysis, an online survey and semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, the interrelations between accompanying measures and other elements of the package of budget support were analysed.