From project to policy reform: experiences of German development cooperation

Abstract

"This study deals with one specific form of donor support for policy reform, namely donor-financed policy reform programmes that are based on a combination of pilot projects and high-level advice – so called multilevel approaches. German development agencies argue that policy reform processes involve complex societal changes and can therefore not be decreed and implemented through top-down processes. According to their argument, high-level policy advisory services that are not embedded in processes of societal change can offer blueprints but not tailor-made solutions and are therefore rarely able to bring about lasting change. They insist that good policy solutions need to be tested in practice, and stake holder support needs to be built through participatory learning processes. GTZ in particular claims to have a competitive advantage vis-à-vis other donors that do not offer as much “multi-level competence” and processbased policy support. The purpose of the present volume is to see how successful multi-level approaches work in practice, especially to what extent good policy support actually requires a micro- or project-level foundation. This gives rise to questions regarding the operational setup of such processes: E.g. how feedback loops between implementation of pilot projects, capacity-building in service delivery, and policymaking are best organized; what role formal and informal procedures play in the policymaking process, and who the most influential change agents are; how a succession of microlevel experiments, codification of experiences, norm-setting and enforcement of new rules should be timed and sequenced, and what time spans are required to manage such iterative processes." [author's abstract]