Established in the context of the Busan Conference in 2011, the development landscape has evolved considerably since the EIP’s founding, from a focus on ‘aid effectiveness’ as the paradigm for development cooperation to the ‘universalism’ of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. This conceptual shift has also precipitated a move away from Technical Assistance and Direct Budget Support (DBS) as the basis for development cooperation towards the increased use of P2P partnership approaches, mutual knowledge sharing and learning, and co-creation of development change processes, as well as a clearer focus on policy coherence for sustainable development policy (PCSD).
As a leading contributor to this work, the EIP, its members and partners are working to identify and understand the attributes of effective P2P partnerships, many of which are grounded in more iterative, adaptive, locally driven, and politically-informed ways of working, as attributes of SDGs 16 and 17, and as a basis for more effective attainment of the SDGs and agenda 2030.
Underlying this approach is the idea that development problems or challenges may not be readily evident or solvable at the outset of a development project and may be multidimensional and multi-scalar, or operating at variable levels of scale (community, local, national, regional and global). Responding to these problems and challenges therefore demands a measure of flexibility and iteration in programming and results management, with these being subject to the external operating environment (including local knowledge, contexts, innovation and capability).
The work of the EIP is guided by the overarching objectives set out in the Strategic Focus Note, and operationalised in a continuously updated Workplan.