Helpdesk

Question
Support to Public Administration Reform in Central and Eastern Europe: Please provide examples and assessments of coordinated donor support to public administration reform (PAR), particularly focusing on multi-donor trust funds, joint or pooled funds, and sector-wide approaches in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Helpdesk response
Key findings: In general MDTFs are a popular way of organising donor support for public administration reform (PAR) in difficult transition environments. The perceived benefits are:

• lower transaction costs for donors
• coordination of donor priorities and approaches
• attracting a wide range of donors to contribute
• facilitating easier harmonisation with country strategies and structures
• straightforward disbursement and recording procedures

Alongside examples from transition countries such as Sudan, Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan donors have contributed to joint funds to support PAR (and related sectors) in Central and Eastern Europe. Cases include pooled Capacity Building Funds (CBFs) in Serbia and Georgia and the establishment of the Public Administration Reform Fund (PARF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. An assessment of the literature on these suggests that:

• it is crucial for recipient government actors to participate in the management of such funds;
• articulations of coordinated donor strategies and action plans have had a positive effect on the capacity of recipient governments to undertake reform;
• funds need to be flexible and responsive;
• donors must possess an exit strategy when funds are first implemented;
• coordinated donor funding can be subject to disbursement delays and are unlikely to replace single donor funding.

Full response: http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/HD650.pdf