And where projects establish stand-alone management structures, they often hire away the best talent from government and civil society, at the expense of strengthening existing government and other institutions. We must end such practices and work together to support national programmes, involving government and civil society. There are promising experiences in implementing partnership principles on the ground in a number of partner countries. Now, this effort has to spread and become the guide for development co-operation. Country ownership takes time to fully develop and requires mutual trust between the developing country's government, its people and its external partners.
Some key challenges remain, however, to be addressed, both by recipients and donors.
We call upon the DAC to consider the guidance needed to implement the partnership agenda. Pursuing a partnership approach to development will tend to focus bilateral co-operation on those countries that have demonstrated willingness and ability in taking ownership of their own development process. This is important to increase aid effectiveness, and builds on the results of intensive research on how to maximise returns from aid in terms of poverty reduction. Where willingness exists, we will support governments to strengthen institutional capacity and ability in order to improve their governance and policies. All too often, national capacities in these countries are further diminished by recent or ongoing conflict and ravaged infrastructures, compounding the challenges of poverty and human misery, in many instances against the backdrop of overpopulation.