OECD Development Co-operation Peer Reviews: Poland 2023

Annex A. Progress since the 2017 DAC peer review recommendations

Towards a comprehensive Polish development effort

 

2017 Peer Review Recommendations	Progress
1.1 As it develops its approach to implementing Agenda 2030 Poland should integrate development co‑operation and its other international commitments on sustainable development.	Partially implemented Poland’s most recent Multiannual Programme was consulted across government and appears to be a key reference document for other ministries. There is, however, room to improve implementation (i.e. the extent to which the plan actually guides different official development assistance [ODA] allocations). General understanding of and support for development co‑operation across the government remains low.
1.2 To deliver policies that are coherent with the aspirations of developing countries, Poland should: clarify institutional roles, responsibilities and mechanisms for making its policies coherent with development objectives; and ensure that government departments have resources and capacity to conduct regulatory impact assessments.	Not implemented Poland has not yet developed mechanisms to systematically identify and address potential transboundary impacts of domestic policies. While regulatory impact assessments continue to be used, they do not yet consider transboundary issues. Co-ordination across government remains challenging and the different roles and mandates for following up on policy coherence for sustainable development remain unclear.

Vision and policies for development co-operation

 

2017 Peer Review Recommendations

Progress

2.1 To strengthen its strategic framework, Poland should: have a policy for providing loans and scholarships that aligns with principles for aid effectiveness, the objectives of the Development Cooperation Act, multiannual programmes and Agenda 2030. provide clear objectives and guidance for delivering on priorities such as reducing poverty and cross-cutting issues such as gender equality and environmental protection. define a strategic approach to meeting the needs of different partner countries in a way that adds value and complements support provided by other development partners.

Partially implemented Poland committed to no longer providing tied loans to least developed countries and adopted a policy in 2019 linking loans to thematic and geographic priorities. Further progress on untying aid is needed. Poland has improved the co‑ordination of its various scholarship programmes, including through the creation of a new agency in 2017, NAWA. The 2021-2030 Multiannual Programme provides some additional details for staff on Poland’s cross-cutting issues, and reducing inequality is a priority. There is no new guidance to support staff on linking development co‑operation allocations to reducing poverty. Planned guidance on cross-cutting issues is stalled, in part due to resource constraints. There is no clear guidance for staff to ensure allocations support a systematic, country-driven response. Interventions remain fragmented, are not country led and co-ordination with other donors at country level could be improved.

Aid volume and allocation

 

2017 Peer Review Recommendations	Progress
3.1 As it increases ODA to meet its commitments Poland should allocate more resources to the bilateral budget.	Partially implemented Poland’s bilateral ODA fell in volume between 2017 and 2020. It increased in 2021 and 2022 due to COVID-related support (donation of vaccines) and in‑donor refugee costs. There is currently no plan in place to increase Poland’s programmable bilateral ODA in 2023 or beyond.
3.2 Poland should focus its bilateral aid, including loans and scholarships, on priority countries and themes.	Partially implemented The Multiannual Programme usefully retains a limit of ten priority partner countries. The share of ODA going to Poland’s top 10 recipients increased between 2017 and 2021. However, seven out of the 10 are not priority partner countries. Poland’s thematic priorities are increasingly broadly defined.
3.3 Poland should allocate its multilateral contributions in a strategic, whole-of-government way to support implementation of its development co‑operation priorities.	Partially implemented There is good co-ordination between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank on contributions to international finance institutions. Poland consistently allocates funding to a set of United Nations partners; however, the number of organisations receiving funding is increasing while overall volumes are decreasing, causing fragmentation. Multilateral ODA is planned on an annual basis, limiting strategic planning.

Organisation and management

 

2017 Peer Review Recommendations	Progress
4.1 To strengthen and make more efficient its business model and free up staff time for other strategic activities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should rationalise the overall number of channels for the special budget reserve and streamline calls for proposals.	Partially implemented The Department of Development Cooperation’s (DDC) business model remains instrument-based, with significant staff time spent on project administration. The DDC must still administer many individual calls for proposals. The reallocation of a share of the special budget reserve to the MFA budget since 2021 has the potential to improve flexibility and streamline decision making.
4.2 Poland should make greater effort to bring different parts of the aid system together and draw on technical capacity throughout the system.	Not implemented The Policy Council is seen as the main mechanism through which to co-ordinate different actors in the system. It remains underutilised. There is significant scope for Poland to better leverage capability and expertise outside the MFA, including in think tanks and civil society, as well as the Solidarity Fund.

Development co-operation delivery and partnerships

 

2017 Peer Review Recommendations	Progress
5.1 Poland’s objective to increase aid transparency, predictability, ownership and focus should shape its aid modalities and partnerships.	Partially implemented The continued reliance on small projects, managed through calls for proposals, is limiting the scope for predictability, ownership and focus. The use of modular projects has somewhat improved predictability for civil society organisation partners, but this remains limited. The annual budget restricts Poland from developing a forward expenditure plan. Planned reforms to improve transparency have been delayed.
5.2 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should communicate its vision, strategy and criteria for reforming its aid modalities to help implementing partners, such as NGOs, to work in a different way.	Not implemented There has been no systematic consultation or discussion on how to move away from an annual, contract-based approach to partnering. The context for partnering with Polish civil society organisations has become more challenging, with less dialogue.
5.3 Poland should bring its ODA in line with the Revised DAC Recommendation on Untying ODA to the Least Developed Countries and Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (2014) and the DAC Recommendation on Terms and Conditions of Aid (1978).	Partially implemented Poland is reducing the amount of ODA tied under the Recommendation, although it has not yet fully met the Recommendation. Poland has improved its performance against the Recommendation on terms and conditions, meeting the norm for the special terms for all least developed countries for first time in 2021 (98.7%).

Results and accountability

 

2017 Peer Review Recommendations	Progress
6.1 Poland should build a culture of working towards results and develop an approach to managing for results throughout the portfolio.	Not implemented Planned development of a results-based management system was paused due to staff resource constraints. There remains a general lack of understanding and support for results across the MFA and very limited accountability requirements to parliament. The MFA’s annual reports on development co-operation were last published in 2019.
6.2 Building on progress with evaluation so far, Poland should guarantee the independence of evaluation from policy and programming and broaden its scope to all aid channels.	Not implemented Prior to 2020, evaluations and research were commissioned through public procurement processes. After 2020, Poland abolished the evaluation function in DDC due to limited staff resources. No evaluations have been published since 2020. It is unclear whether management responses were developed in the past.

Humanitarian assistance

 

2017 Peer Review Recommendations	Progress
7.1 Poland should avoid spreading its humanitarian aid too thinly by focusing on a few priorities where it can play a valuable role during a humanitarian and crisis response.	Not implemented Poland has maintained the following geographical and horizontal priorities of its humanitarian aid: the crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic and the neighbouring countries; Eastern Ukraine (until 2021); Ukraine since February 2022; the protection of civilians, including persons with disabilities. The Development Cooperation Act was amended in 2020 to allow Poland’s Solidarity Fund to provide humanitarian aid to other countries.
7.2 Poland should explore ways of forming strategic partnerships with Polish NGOs, for example to enable a timely response.	Not implemented In 2018, Poland signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Committee of the Red Cross. Beyond this, however, Poland has not made progress in terms of forming more strategic partnerships with development or humanitarian non-governmental organisations.