Strengthening Country Ownership and National Plans

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness places partner countries’ ownership of policies and programmes at the centre of the international agenda to make aid more effective. The Accra Agenda for Action deepens and broadens these commitments by calling for greater inclusion of development actors beyond the state. Strong country ownership in health has been shown to improve health service delivery. This chapter draws on a range of country case studies, tools and aid modalities that are aimed at improving country ownership over health policies. In particular, it reviews the evidence for increased involvement of non-state actors in the health sector, particularly civil society organisations, and assesses the impact of their involvement on health delivery and outcomes.