Document Library

Country Strategy Development: Guide for Country Analysis from a Democratic Governance and Human Rights Perspective

Author: Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation
Date: 2003
Size: 24 pages (638 KB)

Access full text: available online

Summary

Democratic governance has become a priority in donor policies. This guide, published by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA), aims to assist the analysis of country strategies from the perspective of democratic governance and human rights and guide donor intervention. It is important to adapt to the reality of each country and to guarantee synergy between the priorities of partner countries and donors.

There are clear inter-linkages between poverty, human rights and democracy. Poverty can be broadly defined as a state of the violation of almost all human rights. Equally, the absence of democracy and exclusion of poor people from the democratic process perpetuate poverty in the long-term.

SIDA advocates an approach to development based on the concept of democratic governance (an umbrella term encompassing human rights, democracy, participation and good governance). The central characteristics of this approach include:

• Promoting respect for individual human rights contained within international law, laying down minimum rules and standards for government action.
• Recognising democratisation as a long-term process rather than the achievement of a benchmark or standard.
• Creating conditions for the consolidation of democracy by fostering both the institutional and cultural aspects of democracy. The former relates to formal processes and institutions, whereas the latter refers to the prevalence of democratic values and behaviour within society.
• Encouraging popular participation and engagement in decision-making, in particular, to empower marginalised and discriminated groups and individuals, such as minorities and indigenous peoples.
• Supporting good governance by addressing key issues within the public administration such as transparency and accountability, corruption, the allocation of national resources and the level of military expenditure.

Donors should analyse and develop country strategies from the perspective of democratic governance. This offers an added value because it goes beyond other approaches, such as the human rights-based approach, by incorporating additional elements such as the division and balance of state power, democratic culture peoples' participation and good governance of the public administration. In line with this approach, donors should:

• Develop a flexible approach to take account of the capacity and priorities of the partner country and ensure a coherent strategy among donors.
• Use established guidelines for analysing democratic governance, such as indicators drafted by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Informal Network on Participatory Development in 1999.
• Create additional indicators to measure the more complex aspects of democratic culture. This may involve collecting information relating to power structures, political realities and conflicts of interests in partner countries.
• Move beyond the general guidelines on democratic governance, if appropriate, by incorporating other relevant issues into country strategies. This may include, for example, a deeper analysis of decentralisation as a means of encouraging greater popular participation in political life.
• Recognise that the success of this approach relies upon the availability of national statistics and indicators on the conditions associated with respect for human rights and democracy, particularly, socio-economic conditions. However, this information may be lacking in some developing countries.

Access full text: available online

Source: Swedish International Development Agency, 2003, ‘Country Strategy Development: Guide for Country Analysis from a Democratic Governance and Human Rights Perspective’, SIDA, Stockholm
Author: Swiss Agency for Development Co-operation (SDC), http://www.sdc.admin.ch