Information Flow-back

This report, initiated and financed by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), is a contribution to the development of a new communication strategy regarding information flow for official development assistance (ODA). This study proposes a system for producing and channelling information from the development programme sector in order to reach a goal of information flows that are country-owned and built for local capacities, and are aligned with Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommendations and with partner country practices. It is a model designed to secure enhanced information flow-back, both in quality and quantity, from harmonised donor initiatives.

A prerequisite for efficient information flow-back, as stated here, is that the information requested from the prime donor and partner groups is more or less the same. Types of information needed in donor and partner countries include: comprehensible and accessible statistics on progress in sectors, programmes, or other processes; short human-interest stories that describe or exemplify progress in a programme, sector, and a country, and/or describe how the life of individuals and groups has changed for the better due to programme support; and arguments on advantages of harmonisation and alignment in ODA. The document describes a communication flow-back system between an individual donor and a sponsored individual using the example of the information system of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plan.

As stated here, flow-back of accessible and comprehensible information should be considered as a reporting tool in an development aid context of:

• Ownership: developing countries set their own poverty reduction strategies, improve their institutions, and tackle corruption.
  
• Alignment: donor countries align behind these objectives and use local systems.
  
• Harmonisation: donor countries coordinate, simplify procedures, and share information to avoid duplication.
  
• Results: developing countries and donors shift focus to development results, and results get measured.

An efficient flow-back model requires:

• Alignment with partner countries practises and coordination with other harmonised donor practises.
• Harmonisation with Millennium Development Goals (MDG)- and Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS)-processes.
  
• A coordinated "canalisation" of information needs from donor countries.
  
• Flexibility. The model should provide a framework that is adaptable to each given situation in both donor and partner countries.
  
• Effective monitoring mechanisms on both processes and results focusing on comprehensibility and accessibility of reporting.
  
• Sustainable structures. The model needs to be based on sustainable structures, built for reporting on a long-term basis.
  

A two-step model for information dissemination is diagrammed on page 26 in which output is published on a partner country's government website and through digital newsletters to relevant staff at ministries and development agencies in donor countries and to relevant stakeholders in the partner country, available also to politicians, opinion leaders, staff at NGOs, or other individuals, both in donor and partner countries. This information flows through information recipients including politicians, opinion leaders, staff at ministries/agencies, and staff/students at high schools and universities to the public. The public thus has the possibility to either search for the needed information directly at the partner government’s website or search for edited information from the information departments in governments, and respond through those channels. A standard passage in the Programme Support Agreement could require agreement among donors and partners to the use of such a system for reporting. The document diagrams information flow inputs and outputs on pages 14 and 15.

As follow-up, the study suggests that discussion be conducted in the DAC "Task Team for Aid Effectiveness", particularly in the Task Team’s sub-group "Joint-Venture on Managing for Development Results", and that a pilot project be carried out in one or two partner countries to test the validity of this study and to further develop or alter the proposed information flow-back model.

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