National factors helping aid-funded programmes deliver: Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia

While investment is a necessary factor for achieving development outcomes, alone it is not a sufficient condition. The quality of international assistance – how it is delivered, for example, or how it is aligned to national priorities, processes and wider enabling environments are also critical elements for success. Development Initiatives (DI) worked with national governments to identify and assess success factors across several predominantly aid-funded programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. ^[1]

With input from national policymakers and development partners, DI looked at national-priority programmes heavily funded by aid that have had positive development outcomes (covering social protection, agriculture and health) and identified both what they achieved and what drove their achievements.

A key factor in the case studies we considered was an enabling environment: enabling policy frameworks to ensure ODA-funded projects align with national development plans, and political leadership and government commitment to enhance development outcomes, including scale and sustainability.

The case studies identify the funding trends and in-country factors that helped create this environment. They also outline some of the funding and implementation challenges that lie ahead for such programmes.

The conclusions we draw and key challenges we identify should support policymakers and development agencies based in the region as they plan and design programmes and projects.

This brief begins with an explanation of the consultative methodology adopted for the studies. It then presents the specific programmes that are covered in the case studies, and the development outcomes these programmes have achieved. It concludes by highlighting common factors that enabled aid effectiveness in the case studies, and setting out three challenges the countries face in sustaining progress.

The full case studies that support these findings are also available:

• Gender-focused ODA to health and agriculture in Ethiopia
• The role of ODA in delivering social protection programmes in Kenya
• Aid effectiveness in Uganda: Social protection in focus

Further, a comprehensive overview of the recent aid funding landscape across the three countries can be found in our paper Trends in traditional and non-traditional aid flows to Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia .

Download the full briefing as a PDF.