OECD Development Co‑operation Peer Reviews: New Zealand 2023

Annex A. Progress on the 2015 DAC peer review recommendations

Towards a comprehensive New Zealand development effort

 

Recommendations 2015	Progress
1.1 To support its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals, New Zealand should establish a prioritised, medium to long‑term agenda to further promote policy coherence in areas with potential development benefit.	Partially implemented The cost of remittances and adoptions are among the policy coherence priorities New Zealand has identified and is taking action on. However, there has been no change in terms of a systematic process or approach to identify areas of incoherence, facilitate debate and ensure follow‑up.

Vision and policies for development co-operation

 

Recommendations 2015	Progress
2.1 To demonstrate that New Zealand’s programming makes a positive difference to the lives of poor and vulnerable people in its partner countries, as intended by its policy commitments, New Zealand should develop policy guidance, and promote monitoring and evaluation of poverty impacts.	Partially implemented ODA is focusing more on inequalities and inclusion, with guidance developed for staff and partners on what this means in practice. A new “Inclusion team” in MFAT produces annual reports on implementation of priority areas.
2.2 To meet its commitment to mainstream the cross-cutting issues of environmental sustainability, gender equality and human rights, New Zealand should continue to focus on developing staff capability and management accountability in these areas.	Partially implemented MFAT developed action plans on priority cross-cutting issues, however staff continue to struggle with this in practice. Processes are not systematic, staff lack clear guidance and expertise is stretched. Links between cross-cutting issues and safeguarding policies are unclear.

Allocating official development assistance

 

Recommendations 2015	Progress
3.1 As its economy recovers, New Zealand should set out a time-bound path for growing its aid programme towards meeting the 0.7% UN ODA to GNI commitment.	Not implemented No plan and no interim targets are in place to reach 0.7% ODA/GNI. New Zealand’s ODA/GNI ratio has not risen above 0.28% since 2015, and projections for the 2022-24 period hover around a similar level. There are no discussions on how to move beyond this.
3.2 New Zealand should continue to concentrate its ODA in countries where it is a significant contributor, in line with its strong Pacific focus and commitment to providing quality assistance at scale; outside the Pacific, New Zealand should prioritise LDCs	Implemented ODA remains strongly focused on the Pacific region and LDCs are main recipients in South-East Asia (Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Timor‑Leste).

Organisation and management

 

Recommendations 2015	Progress
4.1 To draw on knowledge of local context, to remain responsive to partners, and to improve development results, New Zealand should devolve further authority for designing country strategies and activities to its country offices	Not implemented MFAT took a decision not to further devolve decision making to country offices.
4.2 In reviewing its capabilities, New Zealand should assess and address any human resource related risks to the delivery of a high impact and cost effective development co-operation programme.	Partially implemented The number of staff working on development has increased since the last peer review, but challenges remain (including around staff rotation, well-being and development expertise), and strategic workforce planning is strongly needed to help mitigate some of these challenges.

Development co-operation delivery and partnerships

 

Recommendations 2015	Progress
5.1 To co-ordinate and align its overall development efforts in each partner country, New Zealand should use the country strategy process to clarify how its different planning instruments fit together, and ensure that these tools capture all programmes across government.	Implemented Classified whole-of-government country strategies have been developed by MFAT. Four-year plans are jointly developed with partner country stakeholders and should guide whole-of-government efforts. To support co-ordination and alignment, the range of different planning instruments could be further simplified.
5.2 To enhance the sustainability of its programme in the Pacific, New Zealand should include, as part of each country strategy, clear steps on how to support long-term capacity building.	Partially implemented New Zealand has a mix of capacity-building approaches in the Pacific. As country strategies are classified, the extent to which these fit together as part of long-term strategy is not clear and evaluations and stakeholder conversations regularly reflected on the need for a more holistic, sustainable approach.
5.3 To maximise the impact of its support to partner countries, New Zealand should review the Partnerships Fund against the commitments made in Busan to inclusive development partnerships, and to CSOs	Implemented New Zealand undertook an evaluation of the Partnerships Fund. Building on the findings of the evaluation, the fund has been replaced by a new approach to partnering with CSOs, Partnering for Impact.

Results and accountability

 

Recommendations 2015	Progress
6.1 To ensure results are central to mutual accountability, New Zealand should agree country results frameworks with partner countries at the same time as it enters into Joint Commitments for Development.	Implemented Public four-year plans include a theory of change, with three-to-four long-term outcomes aligned to key indicators, many of which are SDG indicators. Ensuring high-level consultations feature results and use of country-owned data and statistics are works in progress.
6.2 New Zealand should ensure the impartiality of evaluations is not compromised by the institutional location of the evaluation function.	Implemented Evaluations are separate from the programming divisions and subject to specific independence and quality assurance measures.
6.3 New Zealand should continue to put in place systems and practices to meet its transparency commitments.	Not implemented MFAT’s new IT system Enquire is helping to address data management challenges identified by the last peer review. However, there continues to be very limited public information on projects and programmes.
6.4 New Zealand should step up the priority given to communicating and raising awareness amongst its public of the development programme, through an adequately resourced and evidence based strategy.	Partially implemented MFAT commissioned a public perceptions study and is increasingly using social media and engaging Pacific communities in New Zealand through seminars and events. There remains no clear strategy for development communications and awareness-raising, and there are limited resources and expertise in MFAT to pursue this.

Humanitarian assistance

 

Recommendations 2015	Progress
7.1 New Zealand should actively share its good practices in reducing and responding to disaster risks in the Pacific with other donors.	Implemented New Zealand shares good practices including through input at global disaster risk reduction events, in multilateral humanitarian fora, and in a range of regional engagements.
7.2 New Zealand should review delegations for humanitarian responses, based on tighter allocation criteria that mirror New Zealand’s humanitarian and disaster risk reduction policy.	Implemented MFAT is using its financial delegations and humanitarian funding decisions are not routinely taken at levels higher than required.
7.3 To support effective partnerships, New Zealand should review how it engages with NGOs in humanitarian assistance.	Partially implemented MFAT reviewed its approach to funding humanitarian NGOs in 2017, and reduced co-funding requirements (outside of the Pacific). A planned evaluation of the New Zealand Disaster Response Partnership funding will help to identify ways to further increase the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of this mechanism.