ABSTRACT

This conclusion chapter presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in this book. The book aimed to provide an understanding of how international development policies have changed, or have failed to change in five East Central Europe (ECE) countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, in the ten years following their European Union (EU) accession. In explaining the reluctance of the ECE countries to implement the Global Consensus on Foreign Aid, the book reconceptualized the 'lack of political will' argument. It's not a lack of will which is the main issue, but rather a lack of political attention to development policy. Implementing the Global Consensus would mainly strengthen the International Development Cooperation Department in MFA, but many government bureaucracies would have other goals with foreign aid which they would want to promote. Future research is needed on how the ECE countries relate to the issue of policy coherence for development.