A Governance Practitioner’s Notebook: Alternative …

1 A Governance practitioner s notebook : Alternative ideas and ApproachesTHE DAC NETWORK ON Governance (GOVNET)Alan Whaites, Eduardo Gonzalez, Sara Fyson and Graham TeskeyA Governance practitioner s NotebookALTERNATIVE ideas AND APPROACHESThis work is published under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of theOECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarilyreflect the official views of OECD member document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status ofor sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers andboundaries and to the name of any territory, city or 978-92-64-18362-9 (print)ISBN 978-92-64-18363-6 (PDF)Series.

2 DAC Guidelines and Reference SeriesISSN 1990-0996 (print)ISSN 1990-0988 (online)The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevantIsraeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of theGolan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms ofinternational credits:Cover Roman Dekan | to OECD publications may be found on line OECD 2014 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites andteaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of the source and copyright owner is given.

3 Allrequests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted Requestsfor permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directlyto the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) the Centre fran ais d'exploitation du droit decopie (CFC) cite this publication as:OECD (2014),Accountability and Democratic Governance : Orientations and Principles forDevelopment,DAC Guidelines and Reference Series, OECD OECD 2015 The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein are those of the authors, and are designed to stimulate discussion on a broad range of issues.

4 Accordingly, they should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or cite this publication as:Whaites et al. (2015), A Governance practitioner s notebook : Alternative ideas and Approaches, OECD, Paris, Governance practitioner S notebook : Alternative ideas AND APPROACHES OECD 20153 FOREWORDF orewordThe OECD-DAC Network on Governance (GovNet) is a forum for practitioners from the development co-operation agencies of Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries.

5 The members of GovNet work collaboratively with each other and with other bodies and platforms on issues of Governance and institutional development. GovNet s aim is to promote dialogue, knowledge exchange and research and it seeks to advance innovative approaches to these publication is unusual. GovNet has traditionally produced evaluations, guidance documents and summaries of good practice . We are, however, at an interesting time in the evolution of thinking on Governance practice for reasons that we hope become clear in the document itself.

6 This publication takes a rather different approach by articulating the thoughts, aspirations and concerns of a newly inducted Governance adviser employed by a fictitious development agency. Rather than offer any definitive answers, it tries to stimulate ideas and Govnet is a network of practitioners, it is to them that this notebook is primarily addressed, and it focuses on the challenges and dilemmas that they face. However, we are very aware that improved practice by aid actors is only part of the much broader development story.

7 This always requires us to understand the challenges and dilemmas faced by we have attempted to maintain a clear scope and focus in the notebook we are conscious of the need to engage with other networks such as the Effective Institutions Platform, with its emphasis on peer to peer learning. We have a joint responsibility to take forward the debate on Alternative ideas and approaches. Above all this publication continues to stress the golden rule that supporting Governance reform is first and foremost about laying aside preconceptions and listening to local counterparts.

8 In offering this publication we seek to encourage debate. The process has been open and informal and has relied heavily on the goodwill and commitment of the many people involved. All of those who have contributed to this publication have done so as a personal contribution to the sector. GovNet is extremely grateful for their willingness to share their time and thoughts with practitioners. Therefore please note that the views expressed A Governance practitioner S notebook : Alternative ideas AND APPROACHES OECD 20154 FOREWORD throughout the publication should be attributed to the authors alone.

9 We hope that this notebook also has resonance with the wider development community adding to the lively debate that already Teskey and David YangCo-Chairs, OECD DAC Network on Governance (GovNet)A Governance practitioner S notebook : Alternative ideas AND APPROACHES OECD 20155 ACKNOWLEDGEmENTSA cknowledgementsThe OECD-DAC Governance Network would like to thank the many contributors to this publication all of whom offered their work as a contribu tion to the debate on support to Governance reform.

10 The report was completed under the responsibility of Alan Whaites (OECD). Eduardo Gonzalez and Alan Whaites brought together the work of so many contributors. Thanks are also owed to Cassandra Hendricks and our external editor Sally Hinchcliffe. GovNet is also grateful to the German Federal ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BmZ) which provided support for the design and printing of the publication. The cover design was by Stephanie Coic.