Process start
The 'Structure follows strategy' process was initiated in December 2007 by the chairman of the DPRN Task Force who wrote an internal note (in Dutch) that outlined the fragmented structure of Dutch development cooperation. In the note, the chairman argues that the Dutch government invests a lot of time, interest, money, policy and energy in development cooperation, but that the impact of these efforts is rather limited. The sector’s diversity, lack of coordination, weak policies, a suboptimal government apparatus, and limited continuity in political, policy and managerial terms eventually resulted in fragmentation.
The internal note generated a debate within the DPRN Task Force whereby four fundamental questions were raised:
- Why is the Netherlands involved in development/international cooperation, what is understood by ‘development’ and what is the intended result? (policy vision);
- How can we achieve this? (strategy);
- What infrastructure (multilateral, bilateral and civilateral) is needed to achieve the goals and what requirements have to be in place? (structure);
- What is needed to effectuate the change from the existing to the desired infrastructure?
Issue paper
These four questions formed the basis for a series of interviews with DPRN Task Force members and a few external key players in October and November 2008. The interviews provided rich material for an issue paper (in Dutch) that was written by the DPRN Task Force secretariat (Mirjam Ros & Kim de Vries) and published in January 2009. The paper argued that, in order to reach constructive conclusions about the future architecture of Dutch development and international cooperation, several themes needed to be addressed in the debate. These include:
- Embedding development cooperation in the international context;
- The objectives and strategies of DC/IC (including issues of specialisation, harmonisation and ownership);
- The role of multilateral, bilateral, and civilateral organisations; and
- The role of knowledge/science and the corporate sector.
Reflection
In 2008 DPRN struggled to find an effective format to debate the strategic and structural issues of Dutch development and international cooperation. While the need to increase the sense of urgency through a broad public debate was strongly felt among the Task Force members, they believed that greater clarity on the issues to be discussed was required first. The issue paper outlined these themes and could therefore figure as a leading document in the debate to come. The consultation process also made clear that DPRN, with its aim being to convene development experts from different sectors, was thought to be positioned well to organise this debate.
Timeline 2008
