Threats to aid effectiveness implementation

There are warning signals that could weaken the implementation of the recently approved aid-effectiveness . The new evaluation unit – re-established after 2 year all posts were vacant - has no budget to commission independent external evaluations. Lack of political will and budget resulted in a complete stop of any independent evaluation activity by the Italian development cooperation since 2002. Recently, Director of the local Italian Cooperation offices were prohibited hiring staff in a decentralized way. This is another worrying signal, slowing down further decentralization, that should be aimed at enabling strategic decision-making at country level.