What we know about the effectiveness of budget support (DEVAL - Germany)

Link: https://www.deval.org/files/content/Dateien/Evaluierung/Berichte/2017/D….

Excerpt from executive summary:

From this evaluation synthesis, the following main findings emerge:
• most expected effects of budget support are backed by sufficient evidence;
• most proven effects of budget support are positive or at least in presence of certain context factors positive (e.g. high number and quality of donors’ common interests and the adherence of partner governments to the conditionalities);
• observed effects are mostly attributed to the whole budget support programme. Information on the specific effects of individual inputs of budget support (financial input, conditionalities, policy dialogue and TA/CD) is rarely provided;
• a multitude of sources convincingly describes the attribution of observed changes to budget support on output and induced output level. On the outcome and especially the impact level, attribution of observed changes to budget support programmes is often not plausibly supported by evidence;
• important and highly debated risks of budget support are inadequately researched by the covered sources, thus statements on risks are not possible;
• the strength of budget support effects depends strongly on context conditions, such as institutional capacity and political will for reform of the recipient government.