The organisation for economic co-operation and development: unimportant or under-researched

A

United in diversity? Analysing behaviour expectations of the European Union as a non-state member of the OECD’s development assistance committee

The European Union (EU) frequently accentuates its position as the largest provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA). Together with the EU institutions, EU Member States represent 21 of the 30 members of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) that sets out rules and standards for what can be reported as ODA. Following the EU Treaty’s requirement for the EU to work together in international organisations, research has detected a tentative yet positive trend to this end in different international organisations (IOs). This article’s empirical analysis shows no such trend can be detected in the EU’s engagement in the DAC. Explanatory factors include divergent development cooperation approaches inside the EU, discrepancies between the established image of and everyday practice in the DAC, and the EU’s full DAC membership. The findings add to the literature on international organisation governance by exploring different behaviour expectations of non-state membership vis-à-vis that of states

Ignoring the elephant in the room? Assessing the impact of the European Union on the Development Assistance Committee's role in international development

This article studies the impact of the European Union (EU) on the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While the literature thus far has focused on the external challenges for the DAC's role in international development, this study argues that the EU should be taken into account as well. By focusing on the cases of policy coherence for development and the concessionality of official development assistance (ODA) loans, we show that the EU poses a structural challenge for the DAC's role in international development given the strong overlap in membership between both institutions and the Union's changing nature as a development actor

Naar een nieuw forum voor ontwikkelingssamenwerking: het UN-DCF als opvolger van het OECD-DAC?

De afgelopen jaren nam de kritiek op de OESO-DAC sterk toe. Zowel ontwikkelingslanden als NGO's hekelen de legitimiteit van het comité en verkiezen andere fora. Hierbij schuift men steevast het pas opgerichte UN-DCF naar voor als volwaardige opvolger van het DAC. Op basis van de bestaande literatuur rond input-, output- en proceslegitimiteit stelt dit artikel echter dat het DCF tot op heden geen volwaardig alternatief vormt voor het DAC. Enkel op vlak van inputlegitimiteit presteert het DCF iets beter als het DAC, maar ook hier is de kloof tussen beide instellingen minder groot als ontwikkelingslanden en NGOs laten uitschijnen

The European Union and policy coherence for development: a norm maker in the OECD system?

C