The following text is a summary of the OECD/DAC initiative on dialogues with developing countries on national strategies for sustainable development and provides an overview of the main elements of the project.

“Agenda 21 (UNCED, 1992) called for the preparation of national strategies for sustainable

development (nssds). The OECD in its “Shaping the 21st Century” document (1996), set a target of 2005 for nssds to be in the process of implementation in all countries. In 1997, the UN General Assembly Special Session set a target date of 2002 for all countries to have introduced such strategies. Shaping the 21st Century commits DAC members to support developing countries in the formulation and implementation of nssds through a partnership approach.

Despite these international targets, there is a lack of clarity on what an nssds actually is (there is no internally agreed definition, nor any official guidance on how to prepare an nssd). The donor community has done little work to understand the issue or to determine how best to assist developing countries with nssds. In the past, many strategic planning initiatives have had limited practical impact because they have focused on the production of a document as an end-product, and such documents have often been left without implementation. Instead, the focus of an nssd should be on improving the integration of social and environmental objectives into key economic development processes. In line with the clarification note endorsed by the DAC High Level Meeting in May 1999 (DCD/DAC (99)11), this proposal uses the following definition of an nssd:

“A strategic and participatory process of analysis, debate, capacity strengthening, planning and action towards sustainable development.”

However, an nssd should not be a completely new planning process to be conducted from the beginning. Rather, it is recognised that in an individual country there will be a range of initiatives that may have been taken in response to commitments entered into at the Rio Earth Summit (UNCED) or as part of commitments to international treaties and conventions and that these may be regarded in that country, individually or collectively, as the nssd. But the challenge is: to gain clarification on what initiative(s) make up the nssd; and then to identify what improvements need to be made to these initiatives – or developed between them such as umbrella frameworks, systems for participation and national sustainable development forums – so that they meet the (above) definition of an nssd.

The DAC Working Party on Development Cooperation and the Environment (WP/ENV) has mandated a Task Force, co-led by the European Commission and the United Kingdom, to produce guidance on best practice for assisting developing countries with the formulation and implementation of nssd processes. A scoping workshop in November 1998 brought together Task Force and developing country representatives to discuss the broad directions for this work. The workshop recommended a systematic in-country consultation with developing country partners in order to elaborate good practice for donors. The February 1999 meeting of the DAC WP/ENV endorsed the recommendation for informal consultations, or ‘dialogues’, in a number of developing countries and regions, involving donors and a range of stakeholders. The dialogues will review experience with nssds and examine how donors can best assist developing countries in such processes. As well as contributing to the production of generic guidance for donors, the country/regional dialogues aim to make a concrete contribution to nssd processes and donor coordination in the participating countries.

In support of the DAC Task Force’s work on nssds, this project will undertake dialogues in 5 developing countries and will draw lessons from parallel strategy learning processes. The coordination work (led by IIED) will include the preparation of draft DAC policy guidance on nssds and a draft sourcebook with detailed case materials.
 

Activities

1.   Five in-country dialogues: Five at a country level (in Bolivia, Tanzania, Nepal, Burkina Faso, and Thailand). Each of the dialogues will be implemented by a country lead organisation or team. The dialogues will involve a status review of strategic planning processes for sustainable development followed by the dialogues themselves involving stakeholder consultations, workshops and roundtables (their exact nature will vary).

2.   Support to parallel strategy learning processes: The project will also collaborate with and provide limited additional funding to learn from and build on existing reflective and analytical work on strategic planning supported by DAC members/observers in Ghana, Namibia and Pakistan.

3.   Planning workshops: There will be 3 workshops: an initial planning workshop (a mid-term review workshop, and a final workshop. These will be attended by representatives from participating developing countries, lead organisations/teams, donors and resource persons on nssds.

4.   Publications and dissemination of outputs: An issues paper on nssds, a status report and dialogue report for each country/region involved, and an overall synthesis report will be published through IIED. A sourcebook (bringing together the main issues and lessons from these reports) and guidelines for donors will be published by the OECD DAC Secretariat.

5.   International coordination and technical support for the five dialogues. The Task Force has engaged IIED to facilitate and coordinate at the international level the implementation of the five dialogues and to draw lessons from three parallel strategy learning processes. This will involve assistance for planning the approach, tracking progress (ensuring adherence to the timetable and agreed approach), reviewing and editing mid-term and final reports, drawing out generic and country specific lessons, developing an initial draft of DAC policy guidance and a draft sourcebook, and the provision of networking, liaison and administrative support. IIED will also be responsible for convening 3 planning workshops.

There will be four phases

Phase 1: (October 1999 - April 2000). Preparation:

•   Identification of lead organisations/teams;
•   Securing commitment of government and key stakeholders in country/region for dialogues;
•   Establishing Steering Committees in countries/regions;
•   Preparation of an issues paper (by IIED) highlighting key nssd challenges;
•   Establishment of a document collection on strategic planning and designing a website for the project;
•   Convening an initial planning workshop in Tanzania (April 2000);
•   Developing ToRs for the lead organisations/teams

(b) Phase 2 (May - July 2000). Status reviews:

These reviews will be conducted by the lead team/organisations using a guide to Key Issues and Methods (to prompt discussion) developed by the DAC WP/ENV Task Force (see Annex 4. The results of the reviews will provide a basis for planning the dialogues. IIED will provide support for planning the approach for the status reviews; reviewing and editing status reports; and information sharing on emerging nature of dialogues.

In summary, each status review will seek to understand the following key issues:

1.  Context - historical and current strategy work in the individual countries. For the Sahel region, this would cover strategy work in the individual CILSS countries and particularly any regional and cross-border initiatives

2.  Stakeholders - identifying the real/key stakeholders and the extent to which they been involved in the strategic processes, policy development and decision making.

3.  Institutions - responsibilities for strategy implementation, institutional relationships and existing integration. Decision making processes.

4.  Political commitment and policy - initial indicators of wider impact. Policy provision for sustainable development.

Through the course of the discussions, key stakeholders, strategic processes, institutions and key documents will be identified until a ‘map’ of  nssd related work is built up for the five countries. It will also be important to identify key cross-cutting issues which might be used as a analytical tool during the next stage of the dialogues.

The lead organisation/team will provide regular feedback to the in-country steering committee, and present the findings of the status review to key stakeholders, It will then be required to produce a report of the status review of the country’s nssd work. This report should include recommendations for the dialogues, including appropriate approach, format, stakeholders and institutions to be involved, etc.  The co-ordinating organisation (IIED) will liaise with each in-country lead team on the emerging nature and structure of each dialogue and share this information with the other countries.

This phase of the project will help to limit the potential for duplication and also strengthen collaboration with other donors. It will be important to identify private sector stakeholders and to bring them on board at this early stage to strengthen the links between government and the private sector.

(c) Phase 3 (July 2000 - February 2001). Dialogues:

Each dialogue will be organised by the lead organisations/teams in consultation with IIED, and will based mainly on stakeholder consultations, and at least one 2/3-day round table attended by a wide range of stakeholders and donors, possibly with feeder events.

Annex 4 provides guidance on key issues that might be addressed during the dialogues and methodological approaches for analysis.

(d) Phase 4 (November 2000 - February 2001). Drafting of Guidance:

This phase will overlap with Phase 3. A mid-term review workshop will be held in Thailand in October 2000 to consider reports on progress with the status reviews and dialogues. Participants will also work on producing an annotated framework for the guidance on nssds. This framework will be developed further by IIED in close consultation with country teams and donors.

IIED will prepare a overview synthesis report, in consultation with lead organisations/teams, of individual dialogue final reports, drawing out common themes and lessons.

A final workshop will be held in Bolivia in February 2001 to review the results of the dialogues, develop a further draft of the policy guidance, and consider the possible contents and format of a sourcebook.

The sourcebook will be prepared during the balance of 2001.
 

Outputs

(i) Through IIED, the project will develop and publish:

•   An issues paper on nssds challenges;
•   6 status reports on strategic planning processes
•   6 dialogue reports
•   A synthesis report drawing out common lessons.

(ii) Through the DAC, the project will develop and publish:

•   Policy guidance
•   A sourcebook.

•   Key issues and analytical methods for status reviews and dialogues;
•   Reports of the initial planning, mid-term and final workshops
•   A reference collection of nssd literature
•   A dedicated project website and accompanying CD Rom
•   Strengthening of existing nssd processes, and
•   The establishment (where possible) of partnerships between donors and developing countries for developing and implementing nssds.