Better aligned?

Evaluation of the action plan on policy coherence for development

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Geknoopte touwen als metafoor voor coherentie
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Results – Evaluation action plan on policy coherence for development

Since 2016, the action plan on policy coherence for development provides a framework and thematic focus to promote policy coherence for development. Every year, the House of Representatives is informed about the progress on the action plan through annual reports based on a number of indicators. This evaluation provides an insight into the functioning of the action plan.

The initial action plan of 2016 has been revised twice: in 2018 and 2022. The figure below shows how the selection of themes has evolved over time. It shows that the number of themes has been reduced: from eight to three.

Theme development of the action plan
Theme development of the action plan

Policy coherence for development

Policy coherence for development means that a country ensures that:

  1. The goals and results of a government’s development policies are not undermined by other policies of that government.
  2. These other policies support achieving development goals where feasible

Policy coherence for development is often associated with policy coherence for sustainable development.

By policy coherence for sustainable development we mean alignment across all dimensions of sustainable development in national and international policies. This form of coherence is not only about achieving development goals in developing countries, but also about achieving development goals in the Netherlands.

There are three paths how an action plan can help better align policies, meaning increased policy coherence for development, as presented in the figure below.

Intervention logic action plan
Intervention logic of the action plan

Research question

“How and to what extent does the action plan on policy coherence for development contribute to improving policy coherence for development?”

Magnifying glass to indicate research findings

Conclusions

The conclusions of the evaluation are briefly listed below. A more elaborate description can be found in the main report.

Schematic network to indicate the recommendations

Recommendations

Based on these findings, the following recommendations have been drawn up: