{"id":966,"date":"2025-10-02T04:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:00:44","slug":"down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/busan-high-level-forum\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Down With Best Practice Up With Policy Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content column wide left blog_post content view\" id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"edit image\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/var\/broker\/storage\/images\/blogs\/busan-high-level-forum\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning\/174052-1-eng-gb\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning_full_view.jpg\" alt=\"Follow the curve of her eye, by Thomas Hawk\">\n\t<\/div>\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<div class=\"share\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    var addthis_config = {\n        ui_language = 'en'\n    }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis sharing\">\n\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style\" addthis:title=\"Down with best practice; up with policy learning!\">\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_twitter\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_pinterest_share\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_preferred_4\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_compact\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style\"><\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_config = data_track_addressbar;<\/script><br \/>\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"addthis article_options\">\n\t\t<!-- \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/mandrill\/subscription\/add\/18362\/19203\">Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t -->\n    \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDown with best practice; up with policy learning!<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubDate\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/experts-and-authors\/mcgrath-simon\/\">Simon McGrath<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t26 October 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Aid effectiveness has come to be seen as an empty concept without national ownership being placed at its heart. &nbsp;Yet, in too many aspects of the development field, the notion of national ownership runs up against notions of a set of &quot;international best practices&quot;. &nbsp;These are areas, supposedly &quot;evidence-based&quot; but often based more in belief systems, in which a significant part of the international development community are sure of what constitutes effective development. &nbsp;Aid effectiveness, itself, is a prime example. &nbsp;Led by the OECD, a group of international development agencies have defined best practices and others have been invited to believe in this, whether this be &quot;new&quot; donors or Southern &quot;partners&quot;. &nbsp;Yet, as we can see from the recent evaluation of progress towards the Paris targets (with 1 out of 13 being met), best practice is actually hard to find in practice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\nIn my own area of research on skills development, this tendency for Southern partners and new donors to be able to choose &quot;any colour as long as it&#8217;s black&quot; (as Henry Ford said of the Model T), is also very apparent. &nbsp;Whilst Southern countries are free to choose whatever set of skills policies they might think is appropriate to their particular context, there is a helpful set of best practices that can be applied seemingly without any worries about context. &nbsp;National Qualifications Frameworks, for instance, are now being introduced in more than 130 countries, even though recent research by the ILO could find no clear evidence of their positive impact some two decades after their initial introduction. &nbsp;Equally, there are best practices about other parts of a \u201cskills development tool kit\u201d such as competency-based approaches, provider institution autonomy, new funding regimes, etc. that are touted by a variety of organisations even though the evidence that they have ever been a best practice in their countries of origin is hard to find. &nbsp;Indeed, ironically, many of these best practices originate from Britain, yet both policymakers and academics alike bemoan Britain&#8217;s poor performance in developing skills<br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/><br \/>\nWhat complicates this story from an aid effectiveness perspective is that much of the impetus for the spread of these &quot;international best practices&quot; does not come through the ODA route. In the British case, DfID has little interest in these matters as the issue of skills is not seen as central to their narrow understanding of development as the MDGs. &nbsp;Rather, there are a range of other public and private bodies that are involved in exporting the British model through policy advice, qualifications vending and consultancy services. &nbsp;This means that the narrow understanding of both development and international cooperation at the heart of the aid effectiveness agenda misses the wider picture again by ignoring key actors.<br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/>Is there an alternative? &nbsp;Yes, but it is not simple. &nbsp;At its heart is the notion of capacity development, as suggested by the UNDP. &nbsp;This sees the need for a genuine country ownership that is broad and deep. &nbsp;Such an ownership cannot be built by the simple technical injection of improved skills. &nbsp;Rather, it needs to be constructed iteratively by an active learning process that seeks to learn how to make good national policies by engaging national stakeholders in making policies and reflecting on them. &nbsp;This approach of policy learning is preferable to the policy borrowing that too often occurs even when national ownership is talked about. &nbsp;However, it is constantly threatened by the tendency for quick fixes; through the power imbalances that make international seem better than national; and because of the mythical status that international best practices can take on. &nbsp;If Busan can break away from the fetishising of international best practice, it will be on the way to making a real contribution.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"credit\">Photo credit main picture: Follow the curve of her eye, by Thomas Hawk<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"disqus_content\">\n\t\t\t<a name=\"comments\" id=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_shortname = 'broker'; \/\/ required: replace example with your forum shortname\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_identifier = '8019';\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tfunction trackComment(comment)\n\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tfunction disqus_config() {\n\t\t\t\t\tthis.callbacks.onNewComment = [function() { \n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t\t}];\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t(function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tvar dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text\/javascript'; dsq.async = true;\n\t\t\t\t\tdsq.src = '\/\/' + disqus_shortname + 'https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/blogs\/busan-high-level-forum\/.disqus.com\/embed.js';\n\t\t\t\t\t(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);\n\t\t\t\t})();\n\t\t\t<\/script><br \/>\n\t\t\t<!--\n\t\t\t<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\/?ref_noscript\">comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/noscript>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\" class=\"dsq-brlink\">comments powered by <span class=\"logo-disqus\">Disqus<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t-->\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Down with best practice; up with policy learning! Simon [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_2.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-966","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Down with best practice; up with policy learning! \/ Busan High Level Forum \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aid effectiveness has come to be seen as an empty concept without national ownership being placed at its heart. &amp;nbsp;Yet, in too many aspects of the development field, the notion of national ownership runs up against notions of a set of &amp;quot;international best practices&amp;quot;. &amp;nbsp;These are areas, supposedly &amp;quot;evidence-based&amp;quot; but often based more in belief systems, in which a significant part of the international development community are sure of what constitutes effective develo...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/busan-high-level-forum\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Down with best practice; up with policy learning! \/ Busan High Level Forum \/ Blogs - The Broker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aid effectiveness has come to be seen as an empty concept without national ownership being placed at its heart. &amp;nbsp;Yet, in too many aspects of the development field, the notion of national ownership runs up against notions of a set of &amp;quot;international best practices&amp;quot;. &amp;nbsp;These are areas, supposedly &amp;quot;evidence-based&amp;quot; but often based more in belief systems, in which a significant part of the international development community are sure of what constitutes effective develo...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/busan-high-level-forum\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Homepage - Broker Online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Down with best practice; up with policy learning! \/ Busan High Level Forum \/ Blogs - The Broker","description":"Aid effectiveness has come to be seen as an empty concept without national ownership being placed at its heart. &amp;nbsp;Yet, in too many aspects of the development field, the notion of national ownership runs up against notions of a set of &amp;quot;international best practices&amp;quot;. &amp;nbsp;These are areas, supposedly &amp;quot;evidence-based&amp;quot; but often based more in belief systems, in which a significant part of the international development community are sure of what constitutes effective develo...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/busan-high-level-forum\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning\/","og_type":"article","og_title":"Down with best practice; up with policy learning! \/ Busan High Level Forum \/ Blogs - The Broker","og_description":"Aid effectiveness has come to be seen as an empty concept without national ownership being placed at its heart. &amp;nbsp;Yet, in too many aspects of the development field, the notion of national ownership runs up against notions of a set of &amp;quot;international best practices&amp;quot;. &amp;nbsp;These are areas, supposedly &amp;quot;evidence-based&amp;quot; but often based more in belief systems, in which a significant part of the international development community are sure of what constitutes effective develo...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/busan-high-level-forum\/down-with-best-practice-up-with-policy-learning\/","og_site_name":"Homepage - Broker Online","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}