For several years now, country ownership — the principle that aid recipients should be in charge of their own development — has been gaining traction across the donor community.
Most notably, country ownership was one of four basic principles for development cooperation agreed upon by development stakeholders, including major aid donors, at the latest high-level forum on aid effectiveness in Busan in November 2011, building on commitments made in Accra in 2008 and Paris in 2005. In the two and a half years since Busan, country ownership has also emerged as a key element of donor reform efforts in London, Canberra and Washington.
Even the U.S. Agency for International Development has rebranded the implementation and procurement reform component of USAID Forward as Local Solutions.