Post 2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future

partners: their capacities as donors, 19 as trading and
economic partners, the obstacles they face and the
incentives that influence their policy choices and
actions in regional and international settings, and
that shape their preferences in implementing agreed
principles and commitments such as support for
policy coherence for Development. Such analysis
could provide greater insight into the margins of
manoeuvre of international partners to meet their
commitments, which could then further help
inform and prioritise the process of developing
partnerships in any post-2015 development agenda,
its substance and its institutional architecture.
Keeping these challenges in mind, a number of
preliminary pointers for the post-2015 agenda and
process can be drawn from this chapter and from
the country case studies:
• Diversity is the name of the game. Three of
the four case studies confirm that the mDG
instrument has contributed in some way or other
to improving policy design, mobilising external
resources, facilitating policy dialogue and may
have affected policy choices and implementation
in some of the mDG areas. but the country case
studies also confirm the central importance of
domestic political and economic processes in
determining the course of action or inaction,
as well as the central roles of ruling elites or
coalitions.
• The stated ‘political will’ behind development
goals and ‘state capability’ at the country
level cannot be assumed. the ‘best-practice
orthodoxy’ inherent in most oEcD development
models may point to what is desirable, but must
contend with the realities and limits of what is
enforceable.
• The efforts – among others by some donors – to
diagnose context from a diverse range of angles
(including political economy) can be built on.
the new generation of more fine-grained
diagnostics, including conflict analyses and
political economy analytical tools, need to
be systemically used to create development
knowledge about (a) how political and
economic institutions interact and function in
developing countries; (b) how to use external
instruments to create a good fit with reform or
peace-building coalitions; (c) how the effects
of international drivers on the domestic
political economy may help to inform contextspecific
and conflict-sensitive strategies for
development or other responses; and (d)
incentives and political economy dimensions
at work within international partners, which
may help bring out untapped potential for good
fit engagement strategies that combine targeted
entry points with credible and effective multistakeholder
partnerships at global, regional
and national levels.
• A striking feature in the four cases is the role that
violent conflicts have played in recent histories.
In each country, different elite strategies to quell
or use violence have shaped the nature of political
settlements, and have influenced – and continue
to influence in differing degrees – stability or
fragility. It is estimated that half of the world’s
poor do or will live in fragile states (oEcD,
2012). So a deepened understanding of the
impact and incentives of international drivers
on poor governance, rent-seeking of economic
and ruling elites, etc. can help to prioritise those
areas where external development partners,
such as the Eu, have most impact.
19 there has been growing research on the ways in which politics and institutions of donor governments and aid agencies affect aid delivery (e.g.
martens et al., 2002; Gibson et al., 2005; Knack and rahman, 2007; Faust, 2011). Such research on formal and informal rules of the game of
donors, the incentives their interactions generate and their influence on political behaviour and the preferences of key actors provide insights
into policy incoherencies and implementation challenges at the national, regional and global level. the insights into the logics of decision-making
and implementation challenges could contribute to more effective engagement strategies in the future.
poSt-2015: Global actIon For an IncluSIvE anD SuStaInablE FuturE
The country case
studies confirm
the central
importance of
domestic political
and economic
processes in
determining the
course of action
or inaction.
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