Policy on sector-wide approaches for agriculture and rural development

The last decade has witnessed a transformation in international development assistance. This has involved both an unprecedented consensus on development objectives at the international and national levels, and a commitment on the part of a large number of development assistance stakeholders as to how those objectives may be pursued more effectively. It is a transformation that has been driven by a number of factors. 

Chief among these have been, at the global level, the Millennium Development Goals, to which in September 2000 the world’s governments committed themselves; at the national level, poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) or other forms of strategies for poverty reduction, which in most of the world’s poorest countries provide a national point of reference for development efforts; and, within the international development community, the harmonization, alignment and results agenda that, following the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of February 2005, seeks to reform the way that the international development community – donors and partners alike – works and to enhance the impact of development assistance through improved alignment at the country level combined with strengthened country ownership of development efforts.