There is reason to believe that both these strategies will provide good development assistance, but only if coordination prevails.
(KI 5) Although the last decade has seen a rise in international development assistance for health, poor coordination between donors can impede implementation (KIs 6, 12).
But this may offer yet another radical twist in the conceptualisation of coordination in development assistance.
This paper reviews the recent evolution of the concept of coordination for development assistance in health as the basis from which to understand current discourses.
Sectoral Investment Programmes (SIPs), introduced in the late 1990s by the World Bank, appeared to offer a solution to this fragmentation of development assistance and the patchwork approach to coordination, with their focus on integration and the development of coherent programmes, in preference to individual projects [ 11].
Therefore, development assistance between developing countries is considered as SSC.
Key principles included are country ownership, accountable and transparent planning and financial systems, alignment with nationally identified priorities, coordination and harmonisation of development assistance, and increased use of local systems by development partners.
Despite its commitment to coordinate and control development assistance to the health sector, and its leadership position of the Sector Wide Approach, complete knowledge and effective coordination of all international contributions remains a challenge and is hampered by issues within the government as well as among External Development Partners and International Non-Governmental Organizations.
The IHP+Results experience can form the basis for on-going improvements in the coordination, implementation and effective use of development assistance for health.
The paper reviews peer-reviewed scientific literature and relevant 'grey' literature, revisiting landmark publications and influential authors, examining the transitions in the conceptualisation of coordination, and the related changes in development assistance.
