New Deal Principles

The members of the International Dialogue agreed to use the PSGs as a crucial foundation to guide their work in fragile and conflict-affected states. The five goals are:

The members of the International Dialogue agreed to FOCUS on new ways of engaging with conflict-affected and fragile states, including the following:
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Fragility Assessment
Conducting a periodic country-led assessment on the causes and features of fragility and sources of resilience as a basis for the ‘one vision, one plan’ part of the strategy. The assessment should include key national stakeholders and non-state actors and should build upon a harmonised methodology, including a fragility spectrum, developed by the g7+ and supported by international partners.

One Vision, One Plan
Developing and supporting one national vision and one plan to transition out of fragility. This vision and plan should be country-owned and led, developed in consultation with civil society and based on inputs from the fragility assessment. Plans should be flexible so as to address short-, medium- and long-term peacebuilding and statebuilding priorities, and they should be the guiding framework for all country-led identification of priorities.

Compact
A Compact is a key mechanism to implement the ‘one vision, one plan’. It should be drawn up from a broad range of views from multiple stakeholders and the public, and should be reviewed annually through a multi-stakeholder review. The Compact also recognises differences in states of fragility and national contexts; it may therefore take different forms at different points in transition processes. A Compact can also guide the choice of aid modalities and provide a basis to determine the allocation of donor resources aligned to the national priorities.

Use PSGs to Monitor
Using the PSG targets and indicators to make sure that country-level progress is closely monitored.

Support political dialogue and leadership
Increasing support for credible and inclusive processes of political dialogue, as well as supporting global, regional and national initiatives to build the capacity of government, civil society leaders and institutions. Specific support should be targeted to promote youth and women’s participation in political dialogue and leadership initiatives.

The members of the International Dialogue agreed to build mutual TRUST by providing aid and managing resources more effectively, and by aligning these resources for better results. In doing so, they seek to increase transparency, risk management to use country systems, strengthen national capacities and timeliness of aid, improving the speed and predictability of funding to achieve better results. This includes the following:

Transparency
Aim to ensure a much more transparent use of aid (ODA and non-ODA) in the future. This should be done by monitoring, through the DAC, overall resource flows to fragile states and tracking international assistance against individual goals. On a local level, countries receiving international support should strengthen national reporting and planning systems that take into account elements such as budgets, transparency portals or aid information management systems. They should also provide support to domestic oversight mechanisms including national parliaments, and should solicit citizens’ views to assess the transparency of domestic resources and aid.

Risk Sharing
Accept the risks of engaging during transition, recognising that the risk of non-engagement in this context can outweigh almost any risk of engagement. Identify context-specific, joint donor risk-mitigation strategies, which will require different approaches to risk management and capacity development. It is also crucial to conduct joint assessments of the specific risks associated with working in fragile situations. This will help identify and use joint mechanisms to reduce and better manage risks so as to build the capacity of, and enhance the use of, country systems.

Use and Strengthen Country Systems
Jointly identify the oversight and accountability measures required to enhance confidence in, and to enable the expanded use and strengthening of, country systems. Those governments receiving help, with support from international partners, should take all reasonable measures to strengthen their public financial management systems and be absolutely transparent about it. In doing this, they should also build related fiduciary and administrative capacity within country institutions at national and local levels. International partners have also agreed to increase the percentage of aid delivered through country systems on the basis of measures and targets jointly agreed at the country level, while recipient governments will look to increase the proportion of public expenditure funded by domestic revenues.

Strengthen Capacities
To ensure that fragile states can build critical capacities of civil and state institutions in a balanced manner, increase the proportion of funds for capacity development through jointly administered and pool-funded facilities. Substantially reduce programme implementation units per institution and target the use of external technical assistance, ensuring they report to the relevant national authority. Work towards an understanding on remuneration codes of conduct between government and international partners for national experts, as well as facilitating the exchange of South-South and fragile-fragile experiences on transitions.

Timely and Predictable Aid
Develop simple and accountable fast-track financial management and procurement procedures to improve the speed and flexibility of aid delivery in fragile situations. Commit to increasing the predictability of aid: first through publishing three- to five-year indicative forward estimates (as committed in the Accra Agenda for Action), and through making more effective use of global and country level funds for peacebuilding and statebuilding. Finally, provide necessary data to the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) so that regular and accurate reports on volatility will always be available.