Partner Implications from Seminar: New Approaches to Capacity Development Break-out Group: Role of Bilateral Donors

Identified Challenges Little knowledge about statistics and no visible champions in the (DAC) donor community Other players active in the same field and country Better coordination needed, but planning cycles are different Ministries think by sector and statistics don’t clearly fit anywhere Recipients not clear what they want and lack or coordination skills Statistics not catchy and does not sound urgent to sell it to mgmt In many cases large overheads and fees charged on projects CD4.0 is new, so it has to be sold to countries and to donors Conflict: New ideas sell, but they still have to align to its legacy Support to statistics disguised in evaluation efforts -> not easy to disentangle Donors cash-strapped

Proposed Strategies (short to medium and medium to long term) Negotiate lower overheads Form partner groups on the national level (similar to PARIS21’s convening role on global level) To be successful, donors have to be very reflective/critical on current methods Sharing not only existing projects, but also projects currently planned, if possible Improve timing of report launching Improve statistical literacy Transparency of funding stream Investigate impact/value of statistics & return on stat investment Investigate marketing strategies for selling the importance of statistics

Implementation methods National coordination mechanism -> CRESS? Use SDG 17 for alignment among donors Marketing the value of statistics Reduce overheads & fees