Development Co-operation and Policy Coherence

In the 1990s, a widely shared conviction emerged among donors that their policies should become more coherent than in the past. In 1991, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expressed the need for coherence and outlined some basic elements of a coherent policy [OECD, 1992: 31ff]. ¹ In Norway’s stated policy towards the South, including aid policy, coherence has emerged as a key concern. ² Coherence is identified as a virtue and as an effective instrument to attain the overall aims set for aid. ³