New Zealand's development co-operation delivery and partnerships

New Zealand shows a strong commitment to the development effectiveness agenda agreed at Busan. Budgeting and programming have become more predictable by providing multi-year commitments for bilateral programmes, partner countries and multilateral partners. Budgets can also be carried over, reducing the negative incentives and pressure to disburse funds. Programming is well aligned to national priorities and harmonised with other donors. Risks are actively identified and managed at activity level. There are encouraging efforts to use countries’ own systems, including in difficult contexts. The results-driven approach to conditionality could, once evaluated, provide some useful lessons for other donors. New Zealand could now build on these good practices by creating a clear line of sight between its planning instruments, ensuring that its new country strategies capture and co-ordinate whole-of-government efforts in each partner country, and by being more systematic about building capacity, especially in low-capacity Pacific contexts.