Under the Paris Declaration, donors and partner countries commit to “reform procedures and strengthen incentives - including for recruitment, appraisal and training - for management and staff to work towards harmonisation, alignment and results”. This commitment was based on the recognition that the needed changes to behaviour will not happen automatically as there are a number of up-front and long-term costs - institutional, financial and political. The importance of appropriate incentives in influencing managers and officials - and even more importantly political leaders - to bring about the necessary changes has been emphasised in a number of partner countries included in the Evaluation of the Paris Declaration.

If incentives are to shift across the board, determined leadership, reinforced by pressure from well-informed stakeholders in partner and donor countries, will be needed. This publication adddresses this need and aims to provide donor agencies with guidance on how to improve aid effectiveness, and to assist them in identifying their strengths, weaknesses and gaps in incentives for promoting aid effectiveness.