ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an understanding of the paths and trajectories which international development policies have followed in five of the East Central European (ECE) new member states in the ten years after their European Union (EU) accession. The five countries are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The development policy-making in the ECE countries is mainly dominated by technocratic bureaucracies. Non-governmental organizations (NGO) and their associations play an important role in advocacy in all ECE countries, and are usually rather transparent in their reform demands towards governments. The book focuses on the EU and the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and also discusses the role of the many organizations that have provided capacity-building assistance to the ECE donors, most notably the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
