DFID DRIVERS OF CHANGE. Background

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1 DFID Department for International Development DRIVERS OF CHANGE DFID is committed to gaining a better understanding of how change occurs in the countries we work with, and how DFID and other donor agencies can best support change likely to benefit the poor. Within DFID, a Policy Division Team has been established to assist in translating this commitment into ways of working at headquarters, regional and country level. This note outlines the Drivers of Change agenda in DFID. Background The purpose of the Drivers of Change Team is to enhance DFID and other donors capacity to understand how change occurs - and the relationship between change and poverty reduction - and to provide guidance and support to use that understanding in improving the effectiveness of our programmes. DFID s interest in rooting our work in a better analysis of the long- and mediumterm drivers of change has come to the fore for very good reasons: We have in the UK two White Papers and many Target Strategy Papers that set out sound policies for reaching Millennium Development Goals, but in many countries governments are unresponsive to the needs of the poor. Concepts such as lack of political will are an inadequate response to this situation; they identify a problem and invite explanations that we cannot easily provide. The existence of PRSP processes increases the urgency of understanding and responding to the underlying incentive structures that govern policy in a country. Learning from history ought to be a primary task of international development work. Yet we are not very good at doing this. Rather, we donors tend to be ahistorical, apolitical and technocratic in our approach. In general, donors find it easier to say what needs to be done to reduce poverty than how to help make it happen. But we know from evidence that advocating onesize-fits-all policy blueprints does not work. There is growing recognition that effective development programmes must be grounded in an understanding of the economic, social and political factors that either drive or block change within a specific country or region. This requires thinking more strategically about change, and how to use aid effectively in support of change processes that will lead to better and more sustained outcomes for the poor. 1

2 What is the Drivers of Change approach? The Drivers of Change approach is a way of understanding the political economy of poverty reduction and change in developing countries. It directs attention to the underlying and longer-term factors that affect the political will and institutional capacity for reform in different countries, as well as factors that affect the incentives and capacity for change that is likely to benefit the poor. This requires that we make the local situation our point of departure, rather than preconceived policies. It also requires adopting a longer-term perspective, while at the same time looking for short- and medium-term opportunities to support strategic change. We do not plan to develop a single, overarching conceptual framework that will enable us to do a Drivers of Change analysis. Rather, we are encouraging our country offices to ask themselves a structured set of questions at different levels about the dynamics of pro-poor change in the countries where they work. We have adopted this approach as the best way to incorporate a political economy perspective into DFID s work, in a form that will be appropriate to the diverse and complex contexts where we work. One of the first outputs of the Drivers of Change Team has been an initial Approach Paper, which sets out these questions in more detail. 1 The Approach Paper outlines six key areas of understanding where structured questions should be asked by country offices, including: Basic country analysis including social, political, economic and institutional factors affecting the dynamics and possibilities for change. Medium-term dynamics of change including incentives and capacities of agents operating within particular institutional domains (i.e. policy processes) Role of external forces including donor actions, aid modalities and influence strategies on these processes Link between change and poverty reduction including how expected changes will affect poverty, on what time-scale, and the implications (being careful to include change that Operational implications including how to translate understanding into strategies and actions in the Country Assistance Plan How we work including organisational incentives for staff to retain, refresh and use the understanding developed through Drivers of Change work. Not all of the areas and questions above need to be tackled simultaneously. However, there is a risk that if they are not all considered at some point, the Drivers of Change agenda will have little influence on what DFID does. 1 What Does Drivers of Change Mean for DFID? A Draft Approach Paper, Drivers of Change Team, DFID, August 8,

3 In this regard, the Drivers of Change approach involves more than a one-off analysis. We are encouraging our country offices to consider various ways to answer questions that may or may not include commissioning specific analytical studies. The danger is that Drivers of Change is seen as an analytical product in the form of a detailed report that is read by a few staff and then sits on a shelf. Instead, we are encouraging country offices to develop a process for acquiring and refreshing deeper understanding that is operationally relevant, and will be used to directly inform the development and revision of the Country Assistance Plan (CAP). In consequence of a deeper understanding Drivers of Change, we would expect our Country Assistance Plans to: Adopt a longer-term perspective (10 to 15 years) in the CAP regarding the possibilities and capacities for pro-poor change. Identify more realistic timeframes and indicators of pro-poor change. Unpack and respond to lack of political will where this is identified as a major risk to programme success. Include interventions that may not be directly poverty reducing, but that may indirectly support the possibility for pro-poor change. Think seriously about how aid affects incentives, and about donors as political actors. What is a driver of change? While we do not plan to develop an overarching conceptual framework, there are nevertheless some conceptual ideas that inform the Drivers of Change approach. For DFID, a driver of change is a factor that has the potential to bring about change that will help poor people. Change drivers are not simply individual champions of reform (a common assumption by donor agencies) but rather the interaction between structural features, institutions and agents. A Drivers of Change investigation will consider change processes in terms of the interaction between structural features, institutions and agents. Drivers of change will normally be processes that involve each of these types of factors, with relationships of power, inequality and conflict at their heart. Structural features include natural and human resources, economic and social structures. Institutions include the rules structuring the behaviour of agents, and can refer to both and informal institutions. Agents are individuals and organisations pursuing particular interests. There are causal links running in both directions, between structural features and institutions, as well as between institutions and agents, as indicated below. 2 2 The conceptual ideas outlined here were developed by Oxford Policy Management, which led several early Drivers of Change studies for DFID. See Drivers of Change: Reflections on Experience to Date, Oxford Policy Management, Oxford, June

4 Structural Features In s titu tio n s Agents Actions by specific agents can affect the institutional framework. Agents can also affect structural features and processes, but in a way that is mediated by the institutional framework. In the same way, structural features impact on agents in a way that is mediated through institutions. Institutional performance is therefore central to understanding change processes and how they will impact on the poor. What do we mean by pro-poor change? Pro-poor change can be defined in several ways. DFID s Target Strategy Papers and the 2004 World Development Report identify different ways in which strategies for bringing about poverty reduction may be formulated. Generally, DFID believes that the development process will be more pro-poor to the extent that: Factors driving economic growth create demand for the resources and skills to which the poor have access. Hence, growth based on labour-intensive manufacturing and services, or on smallholder agriculture, is likely to be more pro-poor than growth based on the capital-intensive exploitation of mineral resources. The resources of the poor are enhanced - particularly through improved health, education, transportation and communications infrastructure - to enable them to exploit the opportunities that growth processes may create. Institutions of particular relevance to the livelihoods of the poor are accountable to them and/or responsive to their interests. DFID also has ideas about the kind of change that is likely to lead to better governance, which in turn affects the possibilities for positive and sustained outcomes for the poor. 3 All other things being equal, DFID understands change towards better governance to include movement toward a broader rather than narrow distribution of power, the development of more rules-based and responsive institutions, and poor people starting to organise as citizens and claiming access to assets and services as a right. 3 See Better Government for Poverty Reduction, (forthcoming) DFID Discussion Paper, 2003 and The Significance of Understanding Political Capacity for Reducing Poverty, DFID Governance Department,

5 How are we taking this agenda forward? The Policy Division Drivers of Change Team will be short-lived and catalytic. The principal aim, until the Team disbands in July 2004, is to equip DFID staff with the right tools and incentives to understand change drivers, and use this in the design of country programmes on a regular basis. Specific areas of work for the Team include: Operational support to country offices including practical how to advice, cross-country/cross-regional lesson learning, and the identification of researchers from all over the world who can help DFID investigate Drivers of Change. Developing new approaches to understanding drivers of change in specific areas of operational relevance including: the politics and incentives underpinning PRS(P)s; political economy of budget and policy processes; relationships and patterns of accountability between state and civil society; the role of donors as political actors and incentives they create for change. Changing the way we work within DFID, to ensure that the Drivers of Change approach becomes a regular part of what we do. This includes creating the right organisational incentives for staff to acquire, retain and use deeper knowledge of country context and change processes. Developing external collaboration with other Government Departments and development partners. This includes developing ways of closer collaboration with the FCO within the UK Government, with bilateral donors through the OECD DAC s Governance network, and with the World Bank. For more information, contact Jane Doogan (j-doogan@dfid.gov.uk) DFID Drivers of Change Team November