Provision of Technical Assistance Personnel: What can we learn from Promising experiences?

Aid Effectiveness and the Provision of TA personnel: Improving Practice: Policy Management Brief

Provision of Technical Assistance: What can we learn from promising experiences? Synthesis report

Provision of Technical Assistance in Vietnam: Cooking pho, peeling potatoes, and abandoning blueprints

Provision of Technical Assistance Personnel in Mozambique: Between ‘doing the work’ and a ‘hands-off’ approach

O Fornecimento de Pessoal de Assistência Técnica em Moçambique: Entre “fazer o trabalho” e a abordagem “não-interventiva”

Provision of Technical Assistance Personnel in the Solomon Islands: What can we learn from the RAMSI experience?

Aid Effectiveness and the Provision of TA personnel: Improving Practice (Policy Management Brief 20, November 2007) by Tony Land, Volker Hauck and Heather Baser

This PMB argues that improving the effectiveness of TA personnel as an instrument for capacity development requires actions at two complementary levels:

progressively shifting management responsibilities to the partner country and harmonising and aligning development agency support behind country-defined strategies and systems
improving the quality of support provided by TA personnel by adopting a ‘capacity development perspective’, within which TA personnel are seen as a potentially important ingredient in developing capacity, and ensuring that this perspective is applied systematically throughout the design, implementation and review of interventions

This PMB explains why these two dimensions are important, provides examples of emerging good practices and suggests what additional actions can be taken.

Download PDF
Open HTML

Provision of Technical Assistance: What can we learn from promising experiences? Synthesis report (Discussion Paper 78, 2007) by Tony Land

The report draws on a review of the wider literature and three country studies in Mozambique, Solomon Islands and Vietnam, which represent three different contexts in terms of donor and government engagement, economic and political stability and (capacity) development. Key conclusions, recommendations and implications for donors and partner countries are provided on the three research areas of the study: TA demand, TA management and TA effectiveness.

Download ToRs

Download full synthesis report (includes Vietnamese and Portuguese translations of the executive summary):
Download PDF
Open HTML

Technical Assistance in Vietnam: Cooking pho, peeling potatoes, and abandoning blueprints (Discussion Paper 77, 2007) by David Watson, Nguyen Minh Thong and Julia Zinke

(includes a Vietnamese translation of the executive summary: HỖ TRỢ KỸ THUẬT Ở VIỆT NAM NẤU PHỎ…GỌT KHOAI TÂY… VÀ TỪ BỎ NHỮNG PHÁC ĐỒ CÓ SẴN)

Vietnam was selected as a stable country with a relatively high level of government capacity. Although there are over 50 active donors in Vietnam, it is not an aid-dependent country (ODA is less than 5% of GDP). TA operations (about 20% of ODA in 2004) face challenges from a conservative administrative culture, and from corruption, the elimination of which is a government priority. However, the education level of key officials is favourable and their international exposure over the last 10 years has improved their ability to select and guide TA more appropriately. In many respects, therefore, Vietnam offers a positive ‘enabling environment’ for successful TA and related capacity-building operations. There is a growing ability in Vietnamese partners to identify where skill and knowledge gaps exist, and to agree jointly with donors on the remedial action needed (including TA). Another observation is that ‘ownership’ is not an issue. This is a remarkable finding, which is regrettably unusual in many other countries operating in very different economic/social circumstances.

Download PDF
Open HTML

Provision of Technical Assistance Personnel in Mozambique: Between ‘doing the work’ and a ‘hands-off’ approach (Discussion Paper 75, 2007) by Volker Hauck and Mario Souto

(also available in Portuguese)

The Mozambique case offers an examination of a variety of TA personnel practices in an environment that is willing to change but poor in the capacity to lead the development process and overwhelmed by a large number of development partners. Estimates suggest that the amount of TA provided is roughly half of the public-sector wage bill. This report provides an overview of different experiences with TA personnel in five sectors in Mozambique and analyses to what extent the so-called indirect approaches to cooperation, supported via pooled funding, are perceived as more or less effective by stakeholders than the more direct approacheswhere donors are more closely involved in the mobilisation and management of TA. Concluding points are presented to stimulate dialogue on TA personal and capacity development between development partners and the partner country as well as among development partners.

Download PDF
Open HTML

O Fornecimento de Pessoal de Assistência Técnica em Moçambique: Entre “fazer o trabalho” e a abordagem “não-interventiva” (Document de réflexion 75, 2007) - Volker Hauck e Mário Souto

Download PDF
Open HTML

Technical Assistance Personnel in the Solomon Islands: What can we learn from the RAMSI experience? (Discussion Paper 76, 2007) by Heather Baser

After five years of violence, the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) requested outside assistance to bring peace to the country. Australia agreed to work with the Pacific Islands Forum and 15 other states in the region to field the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), whose aim is twofold: stabilisation and strengthening the state, particularly through reforming the core institutions of government. The report explores the features of capacity in fragile states, the use of whole-of-government responses to delivering assistance and the implications of the continuing dominance of technical assistance. It concludes with some evaluative comments on how RAMSI might stimulate more government engagement in order to encourage greater sustainability of its activities.

Download PDF
Open HTML